Key facts:
The National Securities Commission of Argentina announced the creation of a “hub for innovation”.
The Rappi app partners with Bitso and Bitpay to accept cryptocurrency payments in Mexico.
Bitcoin in Spanish is the weekly newsletter of CriptoNoticias in which we review the most important facts related to bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchains in the Hispanic world.
This week Venezuela generated a large amount of information, highlighting the complaint made to the authorities by a group of those affected by having invested in the Generation Zoe project. It is a scheme with branches in several countries on the continent, headed by the Argentine Leonardo Cositorto.
In other parts of the region, the warnings of the Bank of Spain to bitcoin users stand out, and the efforts of Senator Indira Kempis, in search of a greater adoption of cryptocurrency in Mexico.
To go to the detail of the news of each Spanish-speaking country during the past week, we leave you the most recent Bitcoin in Spanish.
Argentina
The National Securities Commission (CNV) of Argentina announced the creation of a “hub for innovation”. Understood as a work environment between private entities and the institution, the objective of the new space is to offer answers about the legal and regulatory aspects that must be complied with startups operating in the Fintech and cryptocurrency sectors.
In this way, companies or enterprises that want to be part of the hub can register through a web page created for such purposes. Interested parties must submit a request to the regulatory body and accept the terms and conditions of participation.
Advertising
On the other hand, CriptoNoticias spoke with Argentina’s Connie Ansaldi, founder of Carnaval NFT, a platform that promotes art using collectible tokens created in RSK, Bitcoin’s side chain, as vehicles. This curated NFT art marketplace focuses on promoting the work of Spanish-speaking artists.
Colombia
According to projections by Banco de la República and other public and private organizations, Colombia’s gross domestic product will grow between 4% and 6% in 2022.
However, despite these growth expectations, inflation in March this year rose 8.53% compared to March 2021. This is a figure that disadvantages Colombians with lower incomes, according to figures provided by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) of Colombia.
In this context, the interest of Colombians in cryptocurrencies has grown significantly, as shown by a study by the Sherlock Communications marketing agency. It is estimated that a 22.3% of citizens expect to buy bitcoin in 2022which represents a 208% growth compared to the 5.2% that this interest had at the beginning of the year.
The Savior
In a conversation with this medium, Mario Gómez, a Salvadoran technologist who leads political dissidence against Nayib Bukele and the adoption of Bitcoin from social networks, said that in El Salvador there are no mechanisms for citizens to check what’s going on around project management linked to cryptocurrency.
He specifically referred to people don’t really know how many bitcoins the government has bought and how many have been mined at the Berlin geothermal power plant. According to Gómez, “experience has taught us that when this has happened in the country [la falta de transparencia]essentially it is because there are some interests behind ».
Regarding this issue, Paolo Ardoino, director of technology at Tether (USDT) and the most visible face of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, assured that it is already being seen a lot of interest around El Salvador’s so-called volcano bonds.
In an interview with CriptoNoticias, he indicated that people are interested in these bonds to demonstrate how bitcoin can save countries. He added that the issuance of the bonds (to be carried out with BitFinex and which was postponed by the government of El Salvador), It will be done in a three-stage process..
Spain
In a statement published by the Bank of Spain, the agency warned that it has the power to block the sale of cryptocurrencies, through banks authorized to offer this type of service.
The Bank points out that, in case there is suspicion of fraud, users of exchanges or entities that have been authorized by regulators could see their accounts blocked.
Denial of access can also be submitted if the purchase of bitcoin is classified as a “high risk” operation. If this happens, other types of controls will be required, such as, for example, making a phone call to the user or asking them to go to a bank branch.
Mexico
Senator Indira Kempis, representative to the Mexican Congress, recently presented two proposals for legal monetary reform that were questioned by public opinion in her country, questioning his intentions around the adoption of bitcoin.
None of the initiatives mentions cryptocurrencies and both focus on the Central Bank of Mexico assuming responsibility for applying new technologies in monetary issuance. Something that the senator sees as one of the first steps before proposing a Bitcoin Law.
The questions to Kempis have to do with the fact that he has expressed his intention to make bitcoin a legal currency in Mexico.
In this framework, the delivery application, Rappi, announced the integration of bitcoin wallets, in addition to the interaction with cryptoactive exchanges. thanks to an agreement with Bitpay and Bitso to accept payments with cryptocurrencies in Mexico.
On the other hand, it was learned that the profitability of Bitcoin mining in Mexico is highly variable, and depends -in large part- on how the activity is carried out.
Mexican miners interviewed by this medium highlighted the fact that the Aztec country It has one of the highest electricity rates in the region.. A fact that has been translated as the main obstacle that small miners with not so developed farms must overcome in order to obtain profitability.
Panama
Cristóbal Pereira, co-founder and CEO of LatamTech and organizer of the Blockchain Summit Latam, reported that the sixth edition of the event will take place from July 6 to 8 at the Panama Convention Center. With this, the Panamanian capital will become the setting for one of the most important Bitcoin technology conferences in Latin America.
Organized by Blockchain Summit Latam of Chile together with the Chamber of Digital Commerce and Blockchain of Panama, this year’s conference will feature workshops, speeches, business rounds and conversations in which successful case studies will be analyzed and public policies in Panama and Latin America.
Venezuela
Venezuelan police forces began an operation in the state of Trujillo, in western Venezuela, with the aim of looking for evidence of fraud in various properties, including an office of Generación ZOE Venezuela located in the town of Valera in the aforementioned state.
The investigation began after a collective complaint filed by dozens of victims before the Public Ministry, assuring that they invested in the project and have not received their respective profits.
This event occurs a few days after learning that the CEO of Generación ZOE, Leonardo Cositorto, was arrested in the Dominican Republic while he was a fugitive from Argentine justice. On April 12, he was extradited to his country where he will be tried for crimes of Illicit Association and Fraud.
On the other hand, the lawyer Carlos Marín Santeliz, legal representative of the Sierramoros company, owner of some Bitcoin miners confiscated by the National Cryptoactive Superintendency (Sunacrip)said they would move all their legal resources to deal with the body.
The entity seized the Sierramoros equipment in November of last year, alleging non-compliance with Venezuelan regulations.
According to Marín Santeliz, the company he represents “will fight for its property rights.” He maintains that the seizure measure represents a violation of the presumption of innocence and in good faith, which are constitutional rights in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the delivery and taxi services application Yummy, enabled the option to use Binance Pay on its platform. as a form of payment for users in Venezuela.
The adoption of this new payment method has to do with the growing demand of the public, who asked the company to add more methods that would allow them to use cryptocurrencies more.
events of the week
Among the events related to bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchains in the region for this week, the following stand out in the CriptoNoticias calendar:
Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 April: «World Blockchain Festival», conference focused on bitcoin, blockchain, DeFi and tokens organized by Spartan Hill in El Salvador.
Thursday April 21: Webinar in streaming “Introductory talk on bitcoin and blockchain”, organized by NGO Bitcoin Argentina.
Businesses that accept cryptocurrencies in Spanish-speaking countries
- AUROLIGHTING Engineering (electrical designs and construction of photovoltaic projects, Colombia)
- Ceci’s Grilled Delights (restaurant, Salinas, Ecuador)
- Destinations Tours travel and ecotourism (travel agency, Colombia)
- JAM Services (Maxikiosko in Misiones, Argentina)
- Taqueria Cinco The Downtown (Restaurant, Veracruz, Mexico)
- intuition (Clothing store in Caracas, Venezuela)
- Congo Monkey (Coffee in Dominical, Costa Rica)
- farm (Pharmacy in Dominical, Costa Rica)
- The Seventy Crepes (restaurant in Bogota, Colombia)
- crypto jeans (jeans factory in Colombia)
- Native Bamboo (Hotel located in La Montañita, Ecuador)
- La Manuela Tattoo (tattoo studio in Madrid, Spain)
Do you know or have a small business that accepts bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for its products and services?
We invite you to share the information with us through [email protected]. We will inform about the adoption of cryptocurrencies of that business in some of the Spanish-speaking countries.