The Latin American digital asset exchange Bitso has introduced a cryptocurrency remittance service in Colombia.
The service, which should enable individual consumers and businesses to send and receive “digital dollars,” is reportedly one of the first crypto-based remittance products offered in Colombia to date, according to Bitso‘s management.
For now, this latest feature should be offered via the firm’s official website, with a mobile app to be introduced later.
Emilio Pardo, Country Manager of Bitso in Colombia, stated:
“These transactions are not affected by volatility at all. The price of the stablecoins that we use depends on the international currency market, with parity with the dollar, a great benefit to beat inflation.”
Bitso is now looking to mirror the crypto remittance service it introduced last year in Mexico, which has handled around $1 billion during H1 2022. The firm now aims to double its volume of global transactions by year-end – and to handle $4 billion in 2023.
Remittances totaling around $8.56 billion have been sent to Colombia from overseas markets in 2021, which is an all-time record, El Tiempo newspaper revealed.
Meanwhile, Colombians sent remittances overseas valued at $380 million this past year, up a significant 52.4% from the 2020 levels. Funds sent to the United States totaled $103 million, up a considerable 102% YoY.
As covered last month, Bitso, a Mexico-based crypto platform that claims to be the leading platform of its kind in Latin America, says it has completed $1 billion in remittances during the first 6 months of 2022. This represents 4X the same period in 2021. Currently, Bitso claims over 5 million users.
Bitso predicts it will double the volume of remittances it processes via its crypto platform by 2022, and expects to process more than $4 billion in 2023.
Bitso states that by leveraging crypto user receive their funds in near real-time – while staving on transaction fees, important for migrants and their families.
For the Mexican economy, remittances represent a main source of foreign currency, reaching 4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In April 2022, international transactions from foreign countries to Mexico reached a monthly record of 4,718 million dollars in the month and during Q1 a total of $17 billion.
Bitso says its volume has increased by 29% in the last two months (May and June).
