I hope you are having a great Friday. Thanks again for reading Barracuda.
In case you missed it, here are the latest briefs to keep you up-to-date:
The global financial system is splitting in two and Latin America will choose sides | 19 October
Argentina’s YPF is selling electricity to a private Bitcoin miner in the Vaca Muerta region | 12 October
In Brazil, the Federal Police raided some crypto exchanges | 6 October
From Latin America this past week, here are the most important updates on Bitcoin, blockchain and crypto politics in the news right now:
Mexico’s Central Bank (Banxico) is rolling out payment infrastructure ahead of its 2024 CBDC issuance. The technology is called CoDiCel and it appears to be developed in house by Banxico.
Mexico’s Banorte is attempting to gain a permit to operate its fintech Bineo while billionaire Germán Larrea is in a process to buy Citi’s Banamex banking infrastructure.
El Salvador’s transmission firm ETESAL paid $1.5 million to Nayib Bukele’s economic advisor. The firm is owner of the state’s crypto wallet Chivo S.A. de C.V. ETESAL contracted Paraguayan banking consultant Cesar Antonio Addario for improving El Salvador’s image in the United States.
Colombian bureaucracy and oligopolistic banking sector is the reason for cross-border stablecoin adoption, according to Reserve’s Ignacio Tompiz. Even though there are no exchange controls in Colombia, AML and KYC are exceedingly strict because of the country’s troubled past with drug-trafficking and money laundering.
The DOJ charged two Venezuelan nationals who were involved in the Russian money laundering and fraud ring that brokered US military tech for Russia’s military. The Venezuelans involved used a combination of cash drops and crypto to launder the funds.
Chile’s Senate approved a fintech law. Now the legislation needs to pass president Gabriel Boric. The legislation includes rules of the game for Bitcoin companies and proposes the securities regulator and the Central Bank regulate crypto assets.
Tether partnered with Smart Pay and TecBan in Brazil for USDT transactions at 24,000 ATMs across Brazil. Tether earlier this year set up a Mexico-focused stablecoin pegged to the peso.
Federal police in Brazil captured a Lapsus hacker known for Nvidia, Microsoft extortion. Lapsus in March hacked Argentine MercadoLibre and Mercado Pago, both of which are using blockchain technology.
US CoinCenter is suing OFAC for Tornado Cash sanctions. This will be an important case to watch since companies operating cross-border payment protocols on Ethereum (Reserve in Venezuela, MakerDAO in Argentina) need to stay compliant.