Bitso to launch Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin on Arbitrum

Bitso Business, an arm of the Mexican crypto exchange Bitso, will launch a Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin on the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum.

The stablecoin, MXNB, will be issued and managed by Bitso’s newly established subsidiary Juno and will be fully fiat-backed by Mexican pesos on a one-to-one basis, Bitso Business said in a March 26 statement.

Bitso Business’ head of stablecoins, Ben Reid, said a primary use case for MXNB could be to promote foreign investment and trade in Latin American economies by providing a more “efficient way” to do business compared to traditional finance infrastructure.

“Global companies face significant monetary challenges when it comes to serving customers in new markets and conducting cross-border payments, including high intermediary costs and inefficient transaction times,” he said.

Juno will operate independently from Bitso to manage the stablecoin and will conduct regular audits of its reserves, providing public attestation reports on the token’s website.

Crypto research firm Chainalysis reported in October that Mexico was an “important country to watch for its embrace of cryptocurrency-based remittances.” 

The World Bank estimated in June 2023 that Mexico received $61 billion in remittances per year, mostly from the US, making it the world’s second-largest receiver.

Chainalysis found that Latin America was the second-fastest growing region globally behind sub-Saharan Africa for crypto transaction value received, and from July 2023 to June 2024, Latin Americans received $415 billion in crypto — a year-on-year increase of around 42.5%.

Source: Chainanlysis

Bitso’s Latin America Crypto Landscape report found stablecoin purchases on the exchange had surged by 9% as people turned to US dollar stablecoins such as USDC (USDC) and Tether (USDT) to guard against rising fiat inflation and devaluation of local currencies.

“In Latin America, challenging macroeconomic conditions, characterized by high inflation and currency devaluations, drove increased cryptocurrency adoption — particularly stablecoins — as a reliable store of value,” the report said.

Related: Circle integrates USDC with national payment systems of Brazil, Mexico

While USDC and USDT seem to be the most used stablecoins in Latin American countries, several Mexican peso-pegged stablecoins have gone into circulation over the past few years. 

The most notable is Tether’s MXNT, which launched on Ethereum, Polygon and Tron in 2022. At the time, Tether’s then-chief technology officer, CEO Paolo Ardoino, touted the token as a store of value for Mexican crypto users and a way to smooth the transition from fiat pesos to crypto.

Other smaller players in the peso-pegged stablecoin market include MMXN, which is backed by Monetary Digital, and MXNe, which was launched by US-based issuer Brale on Solana and Stellar networks in 2024.

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