Bitso, a cryptocurrency exchange established in Mexico and operating in multiple Latin American nations, has disclosed the trends that its user base adhered to in 2023. The CEO of Bitso Argentina, Julian Colombo, said that although Bitcoin remained the most widely used cryptocurrency in the area, Argentines possessed roughly five times as many stablecoins as the rest of Latin America, accounting for 60% of all cryptocurrency purchases made in the nation.
Bitcoin Is Still the Most Popular Cryptocurrency in Latin America
The trends that Latam users followed in 2023 have been broken down by Bitso, a Mexican cryptocurrency exchange that is present in various Latam nations. As Bitso Argentina CEO Julian Colombo told Iproup at the exchange’s launch in 2024, Latam was mostly a bitcoin-centric area, with the first cryptocurrency being present in more than half of the wallets.
But in nations where stablecoins are widely used, like Argentina, this trend is less pronounced. Colombo noted that with more than 60% of the purchases last year, Argentina was the country most interested in buying dollar-pegged stablecoins. The unique circumstances of the nation and the amounts of inflation that Argentines must contend with are the reason for this.
According to Colombo:
Customers are incentivized by high rates of inflation to search for quick and safe ways to shield their money from depreciation.
Colombo emphasized that the acquisition of stablecoins in Argentina is over five times higher than that of bitcoin, and that this specific behavior is exclusive to that country. Stablecoins, on the other hand, are only a small portion of consumers’ cryptocurrency holdings in nations like Brazil and Mexico. Colombo said, “Unlike Argentines, Mexicans, Colombians, or Brazilians are not interested in buying cryptos tied to the dollar.”
According to Bitso’s data, ether accounted for only 16% of all volumes in Latam, while bitcoin owned 53% of the total. Stablecoins also made it to 5%. However, upon examination of Argentine wallets, which had 26% of stablecoins and 48% of bitcoin, this composition changes.
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