Bitso

wikipedia:Bitso is a platform to buy, sell and use cryptocurrencies in Mexico and Argentina. Founded in 2014 by Ben Peters and Pablo González, it’s the first platform in Latin America and sixth company worldwide to earn a Distributed Ledger Technology license from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC). The platform has more than 900,000 users.

Bitso has two main products: its mobile app, where users can buy, sell and use cryptocurrencies, including a cryptocurrency payment service for merchants; and Bitso Alpha, a cryptocurrency trading platform.

Bitso currently works with ten cryptocurrencies, which can be exchanged in 18 markets. In Mexico, nine of them can be converted directly to Mexican pesos (CRYPTO/MXN) and nine of them to Bitcoin (CRYPTO/BTC).

While in Argentina, it has an Argentine peso market to Bitcoin (BTC/ARS) and eight cryptocurrency markets against Bitcoin.

The cryptocurrencies that Bitso supports are: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Golem (GNT), True USD (TUSD) , Decentraland (MANA), and DAI (DAI).

Regulation

Gibraltar Financial Services Commission License

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It has taken steps to pioneer the legality and regulation of cryptocurrency operations within its jurisdiction.

In July 2019, Bitso announced that its platform was granted the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) license from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC). This regulatory framework refers to the guidelines involved in the cryptocurrency transaction services such as deposits, withdrawals, and trading processes, including the protection or custody of data integrity, effective at Bitso from August 1, 2019.

This license is based on nine core principles as listed in the DLT regulations, where its primary purpose is to build a rigid legislative framework for businesses while protecting customers and ensuring adequate systems to secure the financial and non financial resources, with a highly prescriptive approach.

Mexican Fintech Law

FinTech startups bring a wide range of financial solutions by implementing new technology. The most common way of marketing for these platforms is through websites, apps and social media with the ultimate goal of receiving exposure and increasing their online visibility.

The most relevant services these companies offer are: crowdfunding, digital assets markets, and personal finance management.

Due to the high growth of these companies, the Mexican Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público) joined forces with other financial authorities in order to develop the Financial Technology Institutions Law (Ley de Instituciones de Tecnología Financiera), better known as the “Fintech Law”.

On March 9, 2018, the Fintech Law was signed and published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación, Mexico's federal official daily.

This legislation positioned Mexico as a regional leader in innovation, becoming a financial technology regulation pioneer in Latin America. In 2018 alone, about 100 new fintech companies were created in Mexico.

Isabel Dharanee Vázquez Menchaca, the general director of GMC360 had expressed her view of the Fintech Law in Spanish : Template:Quote

Related Companies

Bitso’s initial plan of action is to make strategic partnerships. Pablo González, Bitso’s co founder, expressed in a popular website specialized in bitcoin and digital currencies called Coindesk: “I think partnerships are a good strategy in this rapidly growing bitcoin economy. (...) Companies have different specialties and purposes, and together we can enhance the user experience and expand bitcoin more efficiently.

Bitpay

In 2015, Bitso announced its partnership with Bitpay, the largest bitcoin payment processor in the world. This leading merchant processor works closely with big companies such as Microsoft, Paypal, Shopify, Namecheap and many others. The alliance aimed to the implementation and adoption of digital currency payments in the Mexican merchants, while increasing the number of use cases.

Ripple

In 2018, Bitso announced its partnership with Ripple, including Ripple's XRP-based xRapid platform , focused on building a healthy digital currency exchange ecosystem.

Thomson Reuters Eikon

In April 2018, Thomson Reuters Eikon, a powerful financial analysis platform for historical and real-time data, partnered with Bitso on its markets’ section to enable real-time prices and charts for Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Litecoin and [[Bitcoin Cash].

Blockstream

In September 2018, Bitso communicated the implementation of Blockstream’s Liquid network with the overall goal of providing faster Bitcoin transactions.

RSK

In September 2018, Bitso announced its partnership with RSK, a smart contract platform secured by the Bitcoin network, which facilitates the movement of its native token named SmartBitcoin (RBTC).

Awards

• Daniel Vogel, Bitso’s CEO, was granted along with other young people the Innovators under 35 prize (Premio Innovadores Menores de 35) in November 2016, by the MIT Technology Review magazine in Spanish.

• At the beginning of 2019, Bitso was recognized as one of the 20 most secure crypto exchanges in the world and the safest in Latin America. In this study, conducted by ICORating agency, 135 platforms were evaluated.

• In March 2019, Bitso was recognized as one of the best working places in Mexico. This prize, the Super Working Spaces 2019 ranking (Súper Espacios de Trabajo 2019), was granted by WeWork, Expansión and Top Companies.

• During April 2019, the legal team of Bitso was recognized in the GC Powerlist - Mexico Teams 2019 ranking , by The Legal 500, as an innovating and expert team in the digital currency ecosystem and Fintech industry in general. This is in correspondence with the implemented industry-focused practice changes in response to the promulgated Fintech law in 2018.

• In September 2019, Bitso was considered one of the 10 most outstanding emerging companies to work in Mexico in the first ranking of this kind made by LinkedIn in Mexico: LinkedIn Top Startups 2019. On this list were high growth startups that are innovators in their respective industry, change the working preferences for candidates around the world, and often impact the way people live and work.

• In February 2020, the Best Place to Code 2020 promoted by Software Gury was released. The initiative recognized the companies that strive to provide the best possible working conditions for those who perform in the software and information technology areas. Bitso ranked second place.

Use Cases for Cryptocurrency

Online shopping, sending and receiving remittance payments, payment for goods and services and alternative investments are some of the many ways that more and more Mexicans are using cryptocurrencies.

According to the Global Digital Report launched in early 2019, Mexico is the third country in Latin America with the highest number of internet users who already have some relationship with cryptocurrencies, below Brazil and Colombia.

This information shows the exponential growth that has taken place in Mexico. The increasing use of cryptocurrencies and the adoption of new technologies in the lives of everyday citizens, reflected in the rise of Fintech per capita, are just one of the many reasons linked to the cultural change and economic expansion in Mexico.

For example, the goal of the Criptometro MX 2018 was to understand the general knowledge and thoughts of the Mexican population on cryptocurrency technology. This study concluded that 35% of Mexicans who already own cryptocurrencies use them for payments or online shopping, followed by 32% who save them waiting for a rise in their value and 15% who see them as a potential payment method for merchants.

In this context, Bitso has focused on promoting various use cases of cryptocurrencies through forums and presentations. Including the implementation of payments in commercial establishments through Bitso Transfer, a feature of the Bitso application that let’s users send Mexican pesos or cryptos instantly without fees. In order to know the list of establishments in Mexico that already receive payments with crypto or Mexican pesos through Bitso Transfer, Bitso has an updated map.

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