Latin America Region - Need to know
The politics of Bitcoin and crypto adoption in Latin America this week
I hope everyone is having a great Friday. Thanks for reading this week.
For those who missed it earlier this week, we wrote about how Salvadoran officials are flirting with the idea of tying a passport scheme to its forthcoming issuance of volcano bonds.
Besides that, here are several things we think you need to know from this week:
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, a Mexican businessman close to president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, wants to mine Bitcoin from his 25MW Domo de San Pedro geothermal plant in Mexico’s western Nayarit state.
Nayib Bukele’s Bitcoin ambassador Max Keiser has launched a $5mn venture capital fund for hyperbitcoinization projects. That probably means El Salvador crypto-related start-ups but the details are still unclear. Stacy Herbert and Cory Klippsten are Keiser’s partners.
Former Mastercard executive Emilio Pardo tells the media that Bitso has plans for investment in Colombia. The Mexico City-based crypto exchange wants to expand regionally.
Coinbase wants to let Mexicans cash out their remittances in pesos. And a Coinbase Ventures-backed start-up called Lemon Cash is helping Argentines dodge 50% inflation.
Venezuela plans to tax USD and BTC transactions up to 20%. The move is likely a way to raise tax revenue on a quiet Bitcoin mining industry that has taken advantage of the country’s cheap electricity.
Members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee are drafting legislation that would pressure the State Department to turn an eye toward El Salvador. The Senators argue that El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption experiment could pose risks to US financial stability.
Athena Bitcoin is suing contractors over El Salvador work, says Law360. The lawsuit involves contractors that aided Athena in its deployment of crypto ATMs in the Central American country.
Crypto investment in Latin America grew 10x to $653mn, according to a private equity association. Most of Latni America venture capital went to Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.