USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle, has started this 2024 with significant growth in the Latin American market. As stated by the USDC issuing company in its “State of the USDC economy” report, Latin America is emerging as a global leader in adoption of stablecoin, thanks to the high volumes of remittances handled in the region.
Specifically, Circle mentioned in its report that 51% of Latin American consumers transacted with digital currencies at some point, and 33% of consumers have made transactions with stablecoins.
Why is this region growing so much?
According to Circle, the growth of Latin America is due to several reasons. One of them is the high number of active developers working from the region. In the opinion of the USDC issuing company, these developers are positively impacting the development of fintechs and neobanks. Therefore, this sector has had impressive growth, translating into more than 2,500 different platforms in the region.
To further expand on these trends, Ernesto Contreras, founder of Unalivio points out to the important opportunities stablecoins adoption is opening up in the region, mentioning how there is massive potential to grow much more in Latin America, as the region lacks basic financial offers. From microcredits, home mortgages, or the simple act of sending remittances; Latin American offers are very outdated when compared to developed markets.
That’s why he created Unalivio. Unalivio is a platform that makes digital payments easy for non technical people and uses the USDC stablecoin to allow migrants to make cross-border payments for services; he shares his experience building these solutions:
“Stablecoins provide advantages to Latin Americans despite all the structural and financial difficulties we experience our countries. While it is true that there has already been initial growth, there are still millions of Latin Americans who have not yet been reached, and they will be in the future,” he added.
Contreras suggests that USDC has significant growth potential in Latin America, because even though many in the region associate cryptocurrencies mostly with Bitcoin and trading, there’s a growing awareness of stable alternatives like Tether for transactions and saving. However, Contreras believes USDC has a particularly promising opportunity in this market as they are beginning to focus their efforts and ecosystem to grow in the region, mentioned the founder of Unalivio.
Regarding the selection of using USDC for their platform, the Venezuelan born mentioned it was an easy decision to implement the stablecoin due to the growing ecosystem built and being developed around USDC on Stellar. Specifically, Unalivio was initiated with support from the Stellar Community Fund, and quickly managed to formalize alliances with Stellar partners to integrate into the legacy financial system, and offer cash-in from Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Spain, and Chile, the country where they began to offer their payment services for migrants.
For these reasons, and the high demand that Latinos have for digital dollars, the founder of Unalivio expects many Latin Americans to be able to start using the stablecoin on a constant basis in the coming years.In the opinion of the USDC issuing company, these developers are positively impacting the development of fintechs and neobanks. Therefore, this sector has had impressive growth, translating into more than 2,500 different platforms in the region.
