According to a Bloomberg report last Friday, February 11, new investments are expected in Colombia for this 2022 in the area of cryptocurrencies. And it is that several advances towards the regulation of cryptocurrencies in Colombia have influenced the increase in investments related to these digital assets.
Specifically, in the area of ATMs for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, lThe Spanish company BitBase will allocate a budget of 300,000 euros for the installation of bitcoin ATMs and physical stores in Colombia by 2022.
The advertisement of BitBase occurred a few days after the statements of the American manufacturer of bitcoin ATMs, RockItCoin, about the start of the deployment of a network of its devices in Colombia, a fact reported by CriptoNoticias. RockItCoin, which has more than 1,700 of these devices installed in the world, chose Colombia to expand its operations outside the United States.
Colombia has 39 bitcoin and other cryptocurrency ATMs already installed, of which 26 are in Bogotá. It is the fourth country in the Americas with the most bitcoin ATMs installed, behind the United States (31,797), Canada (2,336) and El Salvador (205). BitBase will enter to compete with the also American Athena and with Panda Group.
This growing deployment of bitcoin ATMs is the product of a notorious boom in the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the Andean country, which has promoted an accelerated development of the ecosystem. In a survey by the Australian group Finder, commented by this medium last December, Colombia was the third country with the highest growth in cryptocurrency adoption worldwide.
Local advances in cryptocurrency regulation
A year ago, the Colombian Financial Superintendence (SFC) began a pilot plan to test various alliances between cryptocurrency exchanges and Colombian banks, which allowed them to offer bitcoin and other cryptocurrency trading services in a phased manner.
The project, known as the regulatory sandbox, or El Arenero, contemplates the authorization of 8 alliances between exchanges and local banks, of which three are already operating. The most recent, reviewed by CriptoNoticias, was announced on Friday, February 11, by the Mexican exchange Bitso and Banco de Bogotá.
The first alliance within the framework of the sandbox carried out by the SFC was formed by Gemini and Bancolombia, and began operations on December 14, as reported by CriptoNoticias. Although it was scheduled to start last December, the second alliance, which was made between Davivienda and Binance, began in mid-January of this year.
Among the alliances authorized by the SFC to be announced soon, are those of Coltefinanciera with Obsidiam, Coink with Banexcoin, and Movii with Panda and Bitpoint, among other.
While three alliances between Colombian exchanges and banks have already been initiated, the regulator’s approach to this project could be described as cautious and limited. Each cryptocurrency trading service offering initiative is limited to about 5,000 users and a small number of cryptocurrencies. For example, in the case of the alliance between Bitso and Banco de Bogotá, access to bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), and litecoin (LTC) will be offered.
However, the project opens a compass so that new users can interact with cryptocurrencies in a regulated environment and can explore other uses of bitcoin. For example, these users could venture into payments for products and services by interacting with companies that already accept cryptocurrencies in their operations.
In parallel with the initiative of the SFC, the P2P exchange OKX (formerly known as OKEx) began to facilitate the direct exchange between its users of cryptocurrencies and Colombian pesos. Payment methods include transfers to Banco de Bogotá, Bancolombia, and Davivienda, as well as platforms such as Skrill, Neteller, Ecopayz, and MercadoPago.
Among other recent developments that show an advance in investments related to cryptocurrencies in Colombia, CriptoNoticias reported on February 7 that the firm Block (formerly Square), invested 17 million dollars in the Colombian digital wallet MOVii. Block, a company founded by Jack Dorsey, led the third round of investment in favor of this project, which totaled 50 million dollars.