Tether’s decision to launch a new digital asset pegged to the Mexican peso will be a boost for cryptocurrency adoption in the Central American country by providing more on-ramps to the USDT stablecoin, according to Paolo Ardoino.
In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph on the sidelines of the summit of the World Economic Forum, the CTO of Tether and Bitfinex said that the reason he came to Davos was to show the usefulness of cryptocurrencies.
“I didn’t come to Davos to meet CEOs of big banks,” he said. “We are here to send our message [de que] there is a big world out there that needs cryptocurrencies safely.”
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said that the increase in crypto demand in the Latin America region pushed their decision to expand. https://t.co/Ig7Y524VT2
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 26, 2022
Tether has identified a growing demand for cryptocurrency and stablecoin products in Mexico, especially among businesses. To meet that demand, the company announced Thursday that it will launch a new peso-backed stablecoin on the Ethereum (ETH), Tron (TRX), and Polygon (MATIC) networks. Ardoino confirmed to Cointelegraph that the “MXNT” pairs will begin trading on Bitfinex next week.
Describing USDT as a bridge to Bitcoin (BTC), Ardoino said that believes that the dollar-pegged stablecoin will succeed in onboarding the next 2 billion cryptocurrency users. However, to bring more people closer to USDT, your company should work with local banks by offering “other flavors of Tether.”
When asked about the possibility that Mexico adopts Bitcoin as legal tender, which became a clear possibility after a Mexican senator promoted the idea of create regulations for cryptocurrencies based on the BTC Law of El Salvador, Ardoino said he is “optimistic that many countries will need, sooner rather than later, [aceptar] to Bitcoin”.
A Mexican senator renews efforts to make #bitcoin legal tender in Mexico, arguing that Bitcoin adoption can drive global financial inclusion. https://t.co/4Yzs3zUUNU
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 23, 2022
However, the path for Bitcoin to become legal tender in Mexico will be more complicated than in El Salvador because the former already has an official currency. Thus, even if Bitcoin does not achieve legal tender status anytime soon, it could become a “de facto legal tender” used alongside the peso, he said.
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