Key facts:
As part of the expansion strategy in Latin America, Bitso officially opened in Colombia.
Its objective is to accompany Colombians on their way to digitization and financial inclusion.
Colombia is one of the countries in the world that has the highest adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, a fact that has motivated the opening of a new exchange in the country: Bitso. This was explained by the company in an announcement sent today to CriptoNoticias that reports that it has formally started its operations in the country.
Daniel Vogel, the co-founder and CEO of Bitso, said: “We are extremely proud to be able to expand our operations and offer our services to all Colombians.” The businessman reported that currently In Colombia, around USD 70,000 million are traded per month in cryptocurrencies.
He understands that such a figure demonstrates the great acceleration that cryptocurrencies have had in recent years in the country and the need to diversify financial options. For this reason, he affirmed that his exchange arrives with the objective of accompanying all Colombians on their path towards digitization and financial inclusion to become a market leader in 2022.
Bitso expands to countries with the highest adoption of cryptocurrencies in Latin America
The initiative is part of the Bitso expansion strategy to promote the use of cryptocurrencies in countries with high adoption rates in Latin America. The exchange, which was founded in Mexico in 2014, officially opens in Colombia, after expanding to Argentina and Brazil.
The announcement comes just days after the company launches an investment product in bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins in all the countries it operates. A launch that he communicated at an event in Argentina, where CriptoNoticias was present interviewing Daniel Vogel.
From the company they indicated that, according to the latest geographical report by Chainalysis, the value of cryptocurrencies received by Latin America was 352.8 billion dollars between July 2020 and June 2021.
In this way, Latin America represents approximately 9% of the global transactional activity in cryptocurrencies. Bitso estimates that such a number is a small portion of the potential that the region may have in terms of adoption. In fact, he noted that the level of usage has already reached half the rate of credit card ownership in some markets.
He also stressed that, according to the study, Colombia is the third country with the highest adoption of cryptocurrencies in the region and the eleventh in the world. Although this was not the only thing that motivated the expansion of the exchange to the country, but also the promotion of the industry that the government promoted.
In February 2022, the national government of Colombia and the Financial Superintendence of Colombia (SFC) gave impetus to a pilot project on cryptocurrencies, in which Bitso was a part along with other exchanges. Such test became the formal opening of the company today in the country, conclude its directors.
In keeping with this promotion by the government, this week the CEO of Bitso met with the president of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez. According to him communicated via Twitterthey were talking about bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs (non-fungible tokens).