Bitso Partners With Circle on Cross-Border Payments Initiative

One of Latin America’s largest crypto exchanges, Bitso, has partnered with stablecoin operator Circle to make cross-border payments between Mexico and the U.S. easier, Circle said in a blog post on 18 November.

According to the announcement, Bitso will leverage Circle’s “powerful APIs and USDC” to launch a new tool, called Bitso Shift, that is designed to improve upon the existing cross-border payment services between the two countries. The initiative aims to make access to USD easier and more affordable for individuals in Mexico, as well as improve the transparency of USD transactions in the country. The CEO and co-founder of Circle, Jeremy Allaire, said in a statement:

“The opportunity for Circle and USDC to be part of making cross-border exchanges seamless between the U.S. and Mexico — the world’s largest exchange corridor — is tremendous. We’re thrilled to be part of Bitso Shift’s innovation demonstrating how blockchain technologies can bring scalable, efficient and cost-effective solutions to market.”

The new tool will allow users to make deposits and withdrawals through domestic wire transfers, and execute payments to Mexico or the U.S. 24/7. The company claimed that wire transfers to Bitso Shift will take between 24 and 48 hours, while exchanges between USD and USD-backed stablecoins — or between Mexican Pesos (MXN) and stablecoins — in the app will be completed in seconds.

The blog post also stressed that while the U.S. and Mexican remittance corridor is the largest in the world — with Mexico receiving more than $40 billion in remittance from the U.S. in 2020 — USD accounts for many Mexican residents continue to be “generally inaccessible and historically burdened by high costs”.