Latin America - AMLO \ Bitso \ Bukele's Trolls \ Guri flows \ Whatsapp Pay in Brazil
Critical Policy Intelligence for Latin America Bitcoin & Blockchain
I hope you are having a great Friday. Thanks again for reading Barracuda Briefing.
In case you missed it, here are the latest Barracuda Insights to keep you up-to-date:
El Salvador’s Digital Securities Legislation & Bitcoin Office | 30 November
Chinese blockchain firms are lobbying Panama’s crypto legislation | 23 November
Venezuela - PDVSA’s exposure to Bitcoin mining | 16 November
A Switzerland-to-El Salvador bridge forms for Bitcoin capital | 9 November
Here is the most critical policy intelligence from this week if you are a Bitcoin, blockchain and/or financial technology professional making important decisions on Latin America.
Mexico’s president AMLO continues to deliver on his promise: he will not touch the banking sector. A bill to reform part of the sector was blocked this week. Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s initiative to regulate Bitcoin will be difficult without willpower from the executive.
Mexican crypto exchange Bitso laid off around 100 workers in Brazil and Mexico. Bitso has a key share of Mexico’s $51 billion remittance market.
Mexico’s Central Banker Gerardo Esquivel’s future is up in the air. He replaced a sub-governor in 2019 and his term ends this year. The other sub-governors are: Irene Espinosa, Jonathan Heath & Galia Borja. Banxico is currently opposed to Bitcoin regulation and wants to develop a CBDC.
El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele will likely come under pressure by the US State Department for running troll farms and social media influencing operations after findings of a major Reuters investigation came to light. Bukele responded on Twitter and made fun of the investigation and did not deny it.
In El Salvador, fifteen journalists from El Faro took legal action against NSO for Pegasus spying. They are alleging the spyware was used by the government to monitor their communications in El Salvador and demand to know to whom the spyware was leased.
El Salvador’s government announced plans for pension fund reform on 25 November. This could be part of a mechanism to repurchase debt and possibly purchase the country’s volcano bond.
In Venezuela, Bitcoin Miners are interested in Guri’s hydroelectric power. But the river feeding Guri is being threatened by illegal gold and minerals mining.
Chile’s Alberto Naudon is advising CentralBank Chile on CBDC. The bank originally delayed its CBDC development until clearer regulations exist elsewhere. He will speak at Iupana’s Fintech forum on 14 December about the country’s CBDC. Chile’s Comision Mercado Financiero (CMF) updated its AML guidelines to target non-proliferation and terrorist financing in line with FATF.
In Argentina, columnist Carlos Pagni argues that Javier Milei is the Juntos por el Cambio coalition’s “big problem” because he divides the Kirchner opposition. Milei is proposing unorthodox economic measures, including Bitcoin adoption.
Whatsapp Pay rolled out in Brazil. It is unavailable to US users, however. Meta’s financial wallet Novi rolled out in Guatemala last year but has since shut down.
Brazil’s lower house passed a bill to make Bitcoin a system of payment. That does not make it legal tender, however. It’s likely the Central Bank regulates payments while SEC of Brazil regulates investment.
Asia in Latin America : Binance appointed France accounting giant Mazars to verify its token reserves, instead of choosing Armanino used by FTX Gate OKX, etc, reports WuBlockchain. The first verification update for BTC will be completed this week. France and Dubai are currently the headquarters of Binance.