El Toque

El Toque is an independent Cuban digital media outlet founded by members of the Cuban diaspora, operating primarily from abroad rather than Havana. It publishes a daily informal US dollar to Cuban peso exchange rate derived from tracking peer-to-peer currency transactions on social media and messaging platforms, which has become the most widely cited reference point for Cuba's real exchange rate, consistently diverging sharply from the official CADECA rate.

The El Toque rate has tracked a sustained depreciation of the peso through 2026. The informal rate rose from approximately 510 CUP when CADECA launched its dollar-acceptance trial on 7 April, to 530 by late April, to 540 in early May, to 568 CUP in the week ending 27 May, to 600 CUP on 4 June, and reached a 670-peso record on 15 June 2026 against a background of collapsing tourism arrivals and a Communist Party reform betting on successive official devaluations toward that informal figure. The euro broke 600 CUP on the informal market in April and reached 680 CUP by early June.

By 4 July 2026 the tracker's dollar reading had eased to 645 CUP and the euro to 720 CUP, still below the 670-peso record set on 15 June, suggesting a partial stabilisation after the peso's sharpest 2026 slide rather than a confirmed reversal. No formal-channel volume data has been published by CADECA or Fincimex to challenge the El Toque figure as the de facto benchmark.

The outlet also provides general news coverage of Cuban politics, the diaspora and the Cuban economy. The Cuban government dismisses El Toque as a counterrevolutionary outlet but cannot suppress the informal rate it tracks; most Cubans use the El Toque figure for practical transactions, and the Cuban diaspora relies on it to assess how much value actually arrives when remittances are converted.