Latin America Region - Need to Know
The politics of tech and crypto adoption in Latin America this week
Argentina’s Minister of Economy Martín Guzman told G20 finance ministers and central bankers on 18 February that his government wants to slap a tax on crypto transactions. Argentines often use crypto exchanges to navigate around strict capital controls.
Belo and Mastercard launched a pilot crypto credit card into the Argentine market. Manuel Beaudroit is Belo’s founder.
In Colombia, lower house representative Mauricio Toro wants to install blockchain technology in the country’s notary agencies. It’s a further indication that Colombia’s adoption is coming from top-down.
Separately, Colombia’s crypto pilot continues to define rules and regulations. Bancolombia and Gemini are the first among 9 bank-exchange partnerships. It’s expected that the finance regulator will wait until after 2022 elections to issue final regulations.
There’s a rumor that Mexican billionaire Rodrigo Salinas Pliego is getting ready to accept bitcoin payments through the Lightning Network at his Grupo Elektra stores. Grupo Elektra is a Walmart-like retailer in Latin America’s second-largest economy.
Confirmed. President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele will tie a pathway for gaining citizenship to the upcoming volcano bond issuance and possibly other Bitcoin-related investments. We wrote about how Bitfinex had been lobbying for the idea here.
The president is sending 52 pieces of legislation to congress related to Bitcoin investment rules and tax incentives. They will likely be passed since Bukele’s party has a majority. Meanwhile, the president unveiled a Bitcoin-funded pet hospital.
Unrelated to crypto adoption but important: 71% of Mexican CEOs polled in a survey say the main threat to their businesses in 2022 is related to cyber security attacks.
And a throwback from last year that I think is indicative of a highly relative trend to watch: surveillance technology adoption. Huawei, ZTE and other Chinese tech companies donated security cameras to the Mayor of Sao Paulo Jao Doria’s government in 2017.
Finally, ScotiaTech - a unit of ScotiaBank - is looking to hire 1,000 tech workers in Bogotá as part of its tech hub build out. It’s a further indicator of Bogotá competing for a top spot amongst Latin America’s tech capitals.
As always, thanks for reading.