I hope you are having a great Friday. Thanks again for reading Barracuda.
In case you missed it, earlier this week I wrote about how:
Here are the most important updates on bitcoin, blockchain and digital infrastructure policy in Latin America from this week:
Mexico’s Tulum played host to a crypto festival this month. Tori Madison described a glittering array of things that happened on the Yucután peninsula: polyamorous sushi parties, kundalini yoga and a speech by Indira Kempis, the senator attempting to legalize Bitcoin in Mexico.
Bukele’s government Bitcoin position is down by $50mn. Nayib Tracker, a tool that tracks Nayib Bukele’s bitcoin purchases, shows that as of June 2022, Bukele had made 9 purchases at a cost of $105mn and a current market value of $47.8mn.
Guatemala-based IBEX is processing lightning payments in Miami. The company has onboarded 85 merchants.
Panamanian president Laurentino Cortizo partially vetoed Silva’s crypto bill. He wants adjustments made that respond to FATF guidance.
Venezuelan Central Banker Calixto Ortega will adopt Russia’s MIR system. The MIR is a Russian electronic payment network that Moscow rolled out in 2017 in order to reduce dependency on Visa and Mastercard following 2014 sanctions.
US Sanctions are forcing British exchange Uphold to exit from Venezuela. Uphold partnered with Agil Fintech S.A. in June 2020 and began processing transactions in Venezuela the same year.
Venezuelan economist Aaron Olmos sees adoption of stablecoins outpacing Bitcoin and other crypto in 2022. The economist is skeptical of SUNACRIP’s data showing high rates of crypto adoption.
Mastercard and CipherTrace are partnering with Mercado Pago in Brazil. CipherTrace, a crypto intelligence firm acquired by Mastercard in September 2021, will help Mercado Pago with risk assessment on the blockchain.
Visa will roll out crypto cards in Argentina and Brazil. Lemon Cash and Satoshi Tango are partnering with Visa in Argentina. In Brazil, Visa has partnered with Alterbank and Zro Bank.
Gustavo Petro won the Colombian presidential election. He has suggested mining Bitcoin with clean energy as an alternative to coca farming.
Latin America-focused BTG Pactual will launch a crypto platform in coming months. The Brazil-based firm wants to launch its own platform called Mynt where customers can use Bitcoin and Ethereum.