Monetae, a regulated digital finance company focused on Latin America, has introduced Monetae Markets, a new offering that gives customers in El Salvador exposure to tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds starting at just five dollars.
Alpaca supplies the underlying brokerage infrastructure, handling custody and settlement of the actual US securities that back the tokens.
The launch extends Monetae’s existing regulated platform, which already covers payments and digital assets, into global equity markets without requiring users to leave a single application.
Company leaders Eduardo Saca Bahaía, CEO, and Raúl Madriz, chief product officer, described the move as a response to fragmented financial services across the region.
Payments, crypto holdings, investments, and banking typically live in separate systems with their own onboarding processes, fees, and restrictions.
Monetae’s goal is to join those rails under one regulated infrastructure that serves both everyday savers and institutions such as banks, fintechs, and issuers that want tokenization and investment tools without building everything themselves.
Monetae Markets opened with about 70 tokenized U.S. equities and ETFs covering technology, financials, healthcare, real estate, and broad market funds.
Because Alpaca custodians the underlying shares, customers can gain market exposure without opening an offshore brokerage account, wiring money abroad, or juggling multiple apps.
Alpaca’s OmniSub technology also supports position tracking, reconciliation, and corporate-action processing inside an omnibus account structure, linking the tokenized experience to the real securities.
The timing reflects three developments: rising demand for digital investment options, a more mature market for tokenized US equities, and El Salvador’s dedicated digital asset rules under the Law for the Issuance of Digital Assets, overseen by the National Commission of Digital Assets.
That framework allows the product to launch with regulatory oversight, disclosure requirements, and market-integrity standards already in place.
Monetae selected Alpaca for its combination of modern, developer-friendly APIs and licensed brokerage operations capable of scaling access to US markets.
Alpaca holds the securities while Monetae manages the regulated digital-asset layer, tokenization, customer onboarding, compliance, and the overall user experience.
Yoshi Yokokawa, Alpaca’s co-founder and CEO, noted that access to global markets should not depend on geography and that the partnership creates a regulated route for Salvadoran customers.
For now, Monetae is concentrating on a stable rollout in El Salvador and building the operational base for later regional growth.
Over the coming year the firms will track adoption, engagement, and operational quality.
Additional products and features may follow after reviews of suitability, regulation, and customer interest. The partnership illustrates how licensed U.S. brokerage infrastructure and local digital-asset regulation can be combined to lower barriers for investors who previously lacked practical access to quality instruments.
