Cryptocurrencies are reaching an inflection point in Latin American payments, as multiple players – from global payment networks to central banks – embrace digital money as a lower-cost way of transferring funds. And while clear regulation would further boost the sector, the financial industry is not waiting for the blessing of supervisors to experiment with the technology. With a global market equivalent to approximately US$ 1.7 billion, cryptocurrency is increasingly used for payments, investments and remittances. “The need for regulation is important, but we also need to understand that it is the users who decide the demand and supply, and that with the blockchain system the transparency and storage of the currency will be guaranteed,” says Filomena Ruffa, general manager of Crypto.com for Latin America, warning that the ecosystem wants to avoid the regulatory “inflexibility” that banks have experienced to date. Although Ruffa predicts a promising future for crypto-based payments, the success of cryptocurrencies in this vertical will depend on the economic context of each country, particularly the stability of their currencies. For Mastercard, two important factors for cryptocurrencies to become a regular shopping tool will be consumer protection and currency stability, especially digital currencies issued by central banks, also known as CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), and stablecoins issued by the industry.

https://iupana.com/2021/03/22/cryptocurrencies-payment-latin-america/?lang=en