Brazilian 2TM Group, the operator of Latin America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, is moving to expand its global footprint with a strategic acquisition in Portugal. The company officially announced Wednesday the acquisition of a controlling stake in CriptoLoja, a Lisbon-based crypto exchange licensed by the Portuguese central bank. Subject to approval by Banco de Portugal, the new deal intends to help 2TM start its expansion into Europe with over-the-counter exchange services. The company also plans to offer the services of Mercado Bitcoin to retail and institutional investors in Portugal. “We will access the European market using the clear synergies …

Crypto-focused enterprise payment platform Tribal Credit has concluded a $40 million debt offering that was funded through fiat and stablecoins — giving the company additional capital to expand its business services in Latin America. The so-called hybrid debt round was financed by Partners for Growth, a California-based investment firm, and Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), which is a non-profit organization supporting the growth of the Stellar blockchain. Tribal said it will use the capital to fund receivables from its customer base throughout Latin America, particularly Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. Tribal COO Duane Good explained to Cointelegraph that funding receivables …

Panama is doing its best to keep up with El Salvador’s Bitcoinization with the installation of 50 Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs in 2022. Thanks to Santo Blockchain, 50 of the planned 300 ATMs will begin shipping to Latin America in early 2022. A vertically integrated blockchain and cryptocurrency company with offices in Saigon, Vietnam and Panama City, Santo Blockchain will invest a total of $1 million into Latin America in general next year as part of its 300 Bitcoin ATM plan. Santo Blockchain announced Panama would be the first country to benefit from its newly purchased Bitcoin ATMs, while Colombia and …

Last month, Cointelegraph interviewed Reserve CEO Nevin Freeman and the payment decentralized application’s community manager Yens Michiels about the company’s mission to provide access to stable currencies. More recently, Cointelegraph spoke to a couple of users based out of Venezuela and Colombia who shared their positive experiences with Reserve. Reserve is a tool to exchange fiat currency like Venezuelan bolivares for U.S. dollars via the Reserve (RSV) stablecoin. From everyday purchases to family remittances, Reserve has said that its use cases are increasingly growing in Latin America. After one year on the market in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Argentina, there …

Enterprise payment platform Tribal Credit has partnered with Latin American crypto exchange Bitso and the Stellar Development Foundation to create a new cross-border payment service for businesses, opening the door to broader use cases for blockchain technology in the region. The new service, which is geared towards small- and medium-sized enterprises, enables companies in Mexico to pay for goods and services in their native peso currency and have their counterparts in the United States receive the payments in dollars. The service will rely on the Stellar blockchain, a decentralized open-source payment network specializing in cross-currency transactions. Tribal Credit’s cross-border payment …

New York-based crypto exchange Gemini has announced that it will be expanding into Latin America through an upcoming partnership with Colombia’s largest bank, Bancolombia. The partnership will take effect Dec. 14, and will permit customers from Bancolombia to trade 4 crypto assets: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). A limited number of users will be able to buy crypto directly from their Bancolombia bank accounts through the Gemini exchange, which will provide crypto-specific infrastructure for exchange and custody of assets. It remains unclear whether the users will be able to withdraw the crypto holdings directly from …

Major cryptocurrency wallet and data service Blockchain.com is expanding in Latin America by acquiring SeSocio, a major crypto company based in Argentina. One of the biggest investment platforms in Latin America, SeSocio will now merge with Blockchain.com to help them scale operations across the region, the firm officially announced Nov. 30. As part of the acquisition, 100 SeSocio employees will join Blockchain.com, immediately bringing its global headcount to 400 people. Together, the firms will focus on providing crypto-enabled financial services to the unbanked and underbanked not only in Argentina but also other countries where Blockchain.com operates, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia …

A gubernatorial candidate from Venezuela has promised to offer scholarships for citizens interested to join the Technical Training Center for Mining and Administration of Digital Crypto Assets. José Alejandro Terán, the aspiring governor who represents the country’s ruling party, started the initiative as a part of the La Guaira Digital program, which aims to fast-track growth and induce economic stability in the country. As Cointelegraph Spanish reported, Terán’s training center will provide specialized training to the scholarship holders in nonfungible tokens (NFT), crypto mining and trading. Moreover, the drive will be supported by four entities, namely the National Superintendence of …

El Salvador continues to lead the Bitcoin (BTC) adoption drive as President Nayib Bukele announces the launch of Bitcoin City, which will be funded initially by $1 billion Bitcoin bonds. The initiative was first announced by Bukele at El Salvador’s Bitcoin Week conference, which sought to celebrate Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption in the country and increase citizen participation. "Pensé que teníamos que dar un anuncio grande en esta #BitcoinWeek. Así que hoy quiero anunciar que vamos a construir la primera #BitcoinCity", Presidente @nayibukele. pic.twitter.com/7yHQLyIjBx — Casa Presidencial (@PresidenciaSV) November 21, 2021 In Bukele’s words: “In #BitcoinCity we will have digital and …

Bitso, a major Latin American cryptocurrency exchange, is collaborating with the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin operator Circle to launch a new cross-border payment tool between Mexico and the United States. The company announced on Thursday that the integration with payment solutions from Circle aims to provide Mexican people with a new option to send and receive payments to or from the U.S. Called Bitso Shift, the new tool uses cryptocurrency to enable low-cost and instant cross-border payments available 24/7, allowing users to instantly exchange between Mexican pesos and the United States dollar (USD)-backed stablecoins. The new offering intends to unlock …

The president of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru Julio Velarde announced that his country will be entering the global race to develop a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). At the Annual Conference of Executives (CADE) with business leaders in Lima on Nov. 16 he said: “I think the payment system we are going to have eight years from now in the world is going to be completely different from the current one… Even the financial system will probably be quite different.” Velarde stated that Peru will partner with the central banks of countries more advanced in their development of …

One under the radar cryptocurrency-powered payment app that's been gaining traction across Latin America is Reserve. The platform acts as a convenient way for people to convert their local currencies, which may be undergoing high inflation levels, to the United States Dollar via the Reserve stablecoin (RSV). The network also features the Reserve Rights token (RSR), which is used for protocol governance. Since its launch in March 2021, the platform says it has seen 367,000 total signups. Meanwhile the number of weekly active users has surpassed 100,000, with most located in Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia. In the past 30 days, …