Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: Worldcoin reaches record verifications in Argentina, Circle partners with Mercado Pago to bring USDC to Chile, and Binance launches a Latam-focused remittance solution.
Worldcoin Reaches Record Verifications in Argentina
Worldcoin, the biometric ID and digital wallet project, has recently announced it reached a record in daily verifications in Argentina. In a press release, Worldcoin reported that due to the high demand for the project, they had reached 9.5k verifications in a single day in August. Worldcoin achieved this milestone with only four verification stations located in four different cities of the country.
Alex Blania, one of the co-founders of the Worldcoin project, detailed this was possible in Argentina because it was “one of the most crypto-forward countries in the world.” He said he considered it an “explosive building ground” for crypto innovation.
However, the Argentine data regulation has an ongoing probe against Worldcoin, inquiring about how the project uses the biometric data of Argentine citizens and the procedures it follows to safeguard the confidentiality of this personal information.
Circle Teams up With Mercado Pago to Bring USDC to Chilean Customers
Circle, the stablecoin company, has partnered with Mercado Pago, the digital wallet of the e-tailer giant Mercado Libre, to list its USDC stablecoin on the platform. The partnership allows Chilean customers of the company to access a dollar-pegged stablecoin in the wallet’s platform, opening savings and hedging opportunities to two million customers.
Matías Spagui, Senior Director of Mercado Pago, stressed that the partnership seeks to diversify access to cryptocurrencies for the platform customers and allow its users to have an alternative currency that matches the value of the U.S. dollar.
Binance Launches “Send Cash” Remittance Solution
Binance announced the launch of “Send Cash,” a Latam-focused remittance solution that seeks to ease the process of transferring funds directly to bank accounts in Argentina and Colombia using crypto.
Users from 9 countries of the region, including Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Argentina, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Mexico, can now make remittances to friends and family, avoiding using third parties to exchange crypto for fiat currency and opening the door for less crypto savvy users take advantage of these technologies.
About this development, Min Lin, Regional VP for Latin America at Binance, declared:
This is another step forward for Binance, which renews its commitment to the crypto industry in Latin America, to the expansion of the benefits it offers in terms of financial inclusion, and to developing new ways of using crypto in everyday life.
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