Latin America - Silvergate \ CNBV & Nubank \ HRW in El Salvador \ AML reform for Argentina \ Lula's FinMin
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:
Ricardo Salinas Pliego is grooming a second Senator for his Bitcoin ambitions | 7 December
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
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.
Mexican crypto exchange Bitso’s banking partner San Diego-based Silvergate is coming under scrutiny in the United States for its involvement in the collapse of FTX. Bitso relies on Silvergate for exchanging fiat dollars to crypto for cross border payments.
Mexico’s securities regulator CNBV gave Nubank a license to offer a digital savings account to users in the country. Nubank in October began the build-out of its own stablecoin.
In El Salvador, Human Rights Watch warned against the Bukele security model. The NGO described it as destined to produce greater insecurity and petitioned the Central American Development Bank (BCIE) to not finance Bukele’s government.
In the Colombian city of Medellín, coffee shops are beginning to accept Lightning Network payments. Lightning Koffee is part of a wave of adopting LN for payments in Latin America.
Venezuela’s ProDavinci published an overview of the 2019 Venezuelan electric generation and transmission failure. The state’s hydro asset Guri is being targeted by Bitcoin miners.
Argentina’s Pro-Bitcoin association is pressuring for adjusting an anti-money laundering bill being debated in the lower chamber. ONG Bitcoin Argentina wants the reform to drop requirements for individuals to flag their Peer-to-Peer crypto transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF).
Brazil’s lower house has finalized the text on a body of legislation that will regulate crypto assets. Now it heads to outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro for signing.
Brazilian president-elect Lula Ignacio da Silva has chosen Fernando Haddad as his Finance Minister. Haddad has written about an initiative to build a Latin American central bank and a Latin America digital currency called SUR.
Mastercard’s whitepaper on Latin America describes a region interested in adopting crypto for various use cases. The payments firm is primarily focused on partnering with Latin America-focused crypto firms like Nubank, Belo and Gemini.
Asia in Latin America: Justin Sun’s Huobi Global and Tether coordinated the launch of a Digital Yuan stablecoin on the TRON Network. Huobi rebranded earlier this year and is renewing its push into Latin American crypto markets. Tether is also rolling out a Mexico stablecoin called MXNT and is heavily involved in the El Salvador Bitcoin policy experiment.