LATAM Crypto Exchange Bitso to Integrate Stellar USDC

As a leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in Mexico, and Argentina, and with their recent launch in Brazil, Bitso has seen incredible traction in the largest remittance corridor in the world, processing $1.2 billion in cross-border payments between US and Mexico in 2020 alone. Today, Bitso and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced that the exchange will begin integrating Stellar USDC for its customers.

This new partnership will ultimately enable Bitso to use Stellar USDC as a bridge asset and the preferred on/off ramp asset between Mexico and the US, lowering costs, accelerating transactions, and allowing its more than 2 million users to benefit from a cheaper USD <> MXN payment rail. By integrating Stellar USDC, Bitso seeks to:

• Solve issues arising from recent spikes in other blockchain fees by decreasing transaction costs. By switching from Bitcoin to Stellar USDC as the internal bridge asset for the US-Mexico corridor, Bitso will be able to offer its B2B clients a faster, cheaper, and simpler transaction experience.
• Increase interoperability. By integrating with Stellar, Bitso will be able to assist Stellar anchors and partners in Latin America with deposits and withdrawals, in addition to remittances.
• Improve its customer experience and expand its product offerings. These new capabilities will be usable through their API that also allows fintechs and remittance companies to source liquidity and connect to local payment networks.
  

This partnership will expand the Stellar ecosystem’s reach in Latin American markets, since both Stellar anchors and partner applications will be able to offer better services to their end-users in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and the U.S. by using this USD-to-local-currency rail.

Bitso is the second major exchange to strike a partnership with SDF this year. Earlier this year, leading Asian exchange Liquid Group, Inc. announced the availability of Stellar USDC for its customers. As more exchanges embrace USDC and/or other stablecoins for its ability to improve access to liquidity and make digital currencies more usable and exchangeable across geographies, SDF looks forward to building even greater support for the Stellar ecosystem and to advancing its mission to provide equitable access and inclusion to the world’s financial system.