Mastercard recently announced the start of the 3rd round of its Mastercard Start Path Crypto programand on this occasion it clarified that it incorporates two Latin American startups: Bitfy, from Brazil, and Belo, from Argentina.
Mastercard Start Path Crypto It is a program that was born in July of last year with objectives aimed at supporting innovation, bringing the benefits of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to more people.
Kiki del Valle, Executive Vice President of Market Development for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) highlighted Mastercard’s commitment to the cryptocurrency ecosystem since 2015, and also expressed the following: “As a technology leader, we know we play a key role in digital assets, helping to shape the industry while keeping consumers safe.”
Latin American startups
As for the new startups added to the Mastercard program, there is Belo, a digital wallet created in Argentina by Manuel Beaudroit and its founders, it was designed to be completely interoperable between local currencies and crypto, and it was also launched in the midst of a pandemic. Belo aspires to add 1 billion users from all over the world to its platform in the long term, in a simple and intuitive way.
About this new achievement, Manuel Beaudroit, CEO of Belo He expressed his great pleasure and responsibility to work together with Mastercard, for taking the crypto issue very seriously. “We are looking forward to working together and achieving the goals we have set for ourselves. We are confident that the Start Path program will help us achieve our goals while adding enormous value to our company and its team”said.
On the other hand, we have Bitfy, which is a crypto wallet of Brazilian origin, which is currently worth more than 25 million dollars and had 120,000 clients at the end of last year, although it expects to triple this figure in the course of 2022.
In this way, Lucas Schoch, CEO of Bitfy commented the following: “We are a startup that aspires to greatness. Partnering with a giant like Mastercard will allow us to learn from their experience. Sharing knowledge will accelerate our growth”.
The Latin American crypto economy
According to a recent study conducted by Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) for Mastercardit is reflected that cryptocurrencies have a 19% penetration among Latin American adults and that its use is expanding rapidly towards consumers with fewer resources, traditionally excluded from the financial system. That said, the report comments that in this region, the adoption of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment is growing precipitously.
In addition, The study shows that 10% of small and medium-sized companies in the region are already accepting cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, while another 15% are in the experimentation stage.
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