Tether Floats Mexican Pesos-based Stablecoin in Latin America

Tether Operations Limited, the blockchain startup behind the USDT stablecoin, has announced its entry into Latin America with the launch of the Mexican Pesos backed MXN₮ stablecoin. 

t3.jpg

According to the company, the new stablecoin will be pegged to the Mexican Pesos on a 1:1 ratio and supported on three networks, including the Ethereum, Tron, and Polygon protocols. The company hopes that with the launch of the new token, the bulk of the cross-border transactions or remittances to Mexico can be taken on-chain, thus cutting transfer speed and fees, respectively.

“We have seen a rise in cryptocurrency usage in Latin America over the last year that has made it apparent that we need to expand our offerings,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether. “Introducing a Peso-pegged stablecoin will provide a store of value for those in the emerging markets and, in particular, Mexico. MXN₮ can minimize volatility for those looking to convert their assets and investments from fiat to digital currencies. Tether customers in this entirely new market will be able to benefit from the same transparent customer experience.”

Tether is the world’s largest stablecoin with a market capitalization of $73.2 billion, ranking it as the third-largest digital asset per data from CoinMarketCap. The stablecoin is not just the largest but also the most popular, and several blockchain protocols support it. While being accused of market manipulation in the past, USDT has been a successful stablecoin backed by the US Dollar, the Euro, and the offshore Chinese Yuan, which it floated back in September 2019.

Tether Operations Limited said its entry into Mexico would serve as a basis for a more related push in the near future.

“The addition of MXN₮ is a milestone for the company as it marks Tether’s entrance into Latin America with a dedicated digital currency. The launch of MXN₮ will provide a testing ground for onboarding new users in the Latin American market and will pave the way for future fiat-pegged currencies in the region to be launched.”

 

Image source: Coinbase

Source

Tagged : / / / /

Is Mexico the Next to Legalize Bitcoin? Senator Indira Kempis Drops a Hint

Mexican Senator Indira Kempis is set to send a bill to Congress which will seek to legalize Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender in the country, in a bid to trail El Salvador.

MEX2.jpg

As reported by online media “El Salvador in English”, the Senator is determined to sponsor the bill this year, believing that failure to adopt the digital currency now can hurt the plans to bring financial equality in the future.

“I have surrounded myself with several people who have worked with bitcoin for years. I have a community of entrepreneurs, of technologists, and of friends who are very knowledgeable and have told me for a long time, ‘you have to be and you have to be part of this world’ And now that I am participating in politics, I seek to promote it,” Senator Kempis said.

According to the lawmaker, Since El Salvador has legalized Bitcoin that has successfully shifted the narratives from the country previously dominated by violence and crimes. She commended that El Salvador is now been looked at in a whole new light.

“It is a historic opportunity that this type of project is being carried out in a Central American country. Every time El Salvador was discussed, it was always to address issues of migration, violence, and organized crime, and now the world’s gaze is not on those public problems, but because of this great call at a global level with bitcoin,” she said.

Besides harnessing the technological advances of Bitcoin and the blockchain tech upon which it is built, Senator Kempis is optimistic that the digital currency can serve as a hotbed for multinational digital assets companies to come set up offices in Mexico.

El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as its legal tender alongside the US Dollar was accompanied by a lot of bold decisions. As Senator Kempis considers the Bitcoin-centric bill proposal, considerations for the rebuttal from both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank should also be factored in.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / /

Coinbase Allows Crypto Investors to Cash Out in Pesos in Mexico

Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, said on Tuesday it launched a pilot program in Mexico, allowing crypto traders in Mexico to cash out cryptocurrencies in Pesos, Reuters reported.

According to the official coinbase blog, crypto recipients in Mexico can now opt to cash out their balance by generating an exchange code on the Coinbase app that can be used to receive cash at 37,000 retail and convenience stores across Mexico.

For cryptocurrency recipients in Mexico, they can deposit funds in the coinbase app to invest in various cryptocurrencies, a total of more than 100 digital assets including Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD) and other current mainstream cryptocurrencies

The service is free of charge for Coinbase customers until March 31, after which a nominal fee of 25-50%, claiming “cheaper than traditional international payment methods” will be charged.

Coinbase wrote that:

“Over time we’ll consider other regions where customers face similar challenges.”

As reported by blockchain.News on January 13, Coinbase is launching a cryptocurrency derivatives service for its clients, announcing the acquisition of derivatives exchange FairX.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / / / /

Top Latin American exchange Bitso officially expands to Colombia

Bitso, a major Latin American cryptocurrency exchange and El Salvador’s crypto wallet assistant firm, has announced its formal launch in Colombia.

As part of Bitso’s development strategy in Colombia, the exchange has hired former Mastercard executive Emilio Pardo as new country manager, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Thursday.

Pardo is former head of business development for the Andean Region at Mastercard, where he focused on fintech issues like instant and cross-border financial transactions and open banking. He will now be responsible for developing Bitso’s strategy in Colombia to increase the local crypto adoption and financial inclusion, focusing on Bitso’s strategic basics including education and security.

According to Pardo, Latin America is now going through one of the most important moments in the adoption of cryptocurrencies, and Colombia is not an exception. The growing crypto adoption will not only benefit Colombia’s financial ecosystem, but will also help educate and address the needs of our customers and fellow citizens, he noted.

Bitso’s Colombian operations are regulated by a major local financial authority, the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, or SFC. According to the announcement, the SFC granted Bitso with authorization to operate within la Arenera, the regulatory framework of its sandbox and crypto pilot program in late 2021.

Under this framework, Bitso started working in partnership with Colombia’s first commercial bank, Banco de Bogotá, in 2021 to trial the exchange’s products and services.

“As an end-to-end regulated crypto platform, we can ensure that this opportunity is putting Colombia at the forefront of innovation and regulation,” Pardo said. He added that the crypto exchange is testing its products within a regulation framework that takes into consideration the entire ecosystem of financial services, including banks, exchanges, regulators and end users.

Related: Colombia clamps down on crypto tax evasion as adoption thrives

Founded in 2014 in Mexico, Bitso is one of the biggest crypto exchanges in Latin America, allowing users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The exchange has been growing massively in recent years, expanding to Argentina in February 2020 and then entering Brazil in April 2021.

The exchange is also present in El Salvador, which officially adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021. Bitso specifically cooperated with Silvergate to facilitate United States dollar transactions for El Salvador’s official Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, Chivo wallet, at launch.