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 easier and more affordable access to the USD for individuals in Mexico, also aiming to increase the transparency of USD transactions in the country.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, Mexican citizens who are non-account holders are allowed to deposit up to $300 daily, but no more than $1,500 per month. Account holders can deposit no more than $4,000 monthly. At the same time, there are reportedly no regulations on the transfer of U.S. dollars into or out of Mexico.
“Wire transfers to Bitso Shift are processed in twenty-four to forty-eight hours through fully regulated institutions,” Bitso said in the announcement. The firm did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
“The opportunity for Circle and USDC to be part of making cross-border exchanges seamless between the U.S. and Mexico — the world’s largest exchange corridor — is tremendous,” Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said.
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Bitso co-founder and CEO Daniel Vogel noted that the new offering aims to support Mexican freelancers and businesses by addressing some of the “financial sector’s most pressing problems.”
Founded in 2014, Bitso is one of the biggest cryptocurrency platforms in Latin America, backed by large crypto companies like the U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and Ripple. Bitso is known as the core crypto service provider for El Salvador’s official Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, known as Chivo. The exchange’s user base almost tripled from 1 million in July 2020 to nearly 3 million users by September 2021.