latin american countries

Skybridge Capital Founder: Bitcoin Will Be Legal Tender in Many Latin American Countries

14/03/2022 by Idelto Editor

The founder of Skybridge Capital has predicted that “bitcoin will be used by many Latin American countries as legal tender over time, not just El Salvador.” He recently doubled down on his $100K bitcoin price prediction but does not currently see the cryptocurrency as a hedge against inflation.

Bitcoin Will Be Legal Tender in Many More Countries, Says Scaramucci

The founder of investment management firm Skybridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, expects more countries to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

“I see bitcoin in its current status as an early adopting technological asset,” he said in an interview with Marketwatch last week. The Skybridge Capital founder elaborated:

I think bitcoin will be used by many Latin American countries as legal tender over time, not just El Salvador, but other countries.

El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar in September last year. The Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, predicted in January that two more countries will make BTC legal tender this year.

The CEO of Devere Group, Nigel Green, also made a prediction in January. He said three countries will adopt bitcoin as legal tender this year.

Meanwhile, the CEO of cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform Bitmex, Alex Hoeptner, said in October last year that five countries will accept bitcoin as legal tender by the end of this year.

Scaramucci recently doubled down on his bitcoin price prediction of $100K. He also believes that the crypto could reach $500K a coin in the long run.

In addition, he expects more than a billion wallets to hold bitcoin by the end of 2025, and the number of BTC users to reach 2.5 to 3 billion in the next decade. The Skybridge Capital founder opined:

When it gets there, then I think as a mature asset, we could have a conversation about whether or not it operates as an inflation hedge.

Scaramucci has said several times recently that he does not see bitcoin as a hedge against inflation yet.

The idea of whether bitcoin is a good hedge against inflation has been a hot topic among investors and fund managers. In March last year, Bank of America said, “Bitcoin has not been particularly compelling as an inflation hedge.” In June, Goldman Sachs said that bitcoin is an alternative inflation hedge to copper, not gold. The investment bank previously described bitcoin as “the retail inflation hedge.”

In contrast, global investment bank JPMorgan said in October that bitcoin is the new inflation hedge, noting that institutional investors were dumping gold for bitcoin, seeing the cryptocurrency as a better hedge against inflation.

How many countries do you think will adopt bitcoin as legal tender this year? Let us know in the comments section below.

Ecuadorian Presidential Candidate Proposes a National Cryptocurrency but It Won’t Replace the Dollar

18/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

An Ecuadorian presidential candidate hinted at creating a cryptocurrency in the country as part of its government agenda. Giovanny Andrade said that the national crypto aims to “facilitate” transactions across the country.

Crypto Could Be Backed by Gold

During an interview with Primicias, Andrade, representing the Union Ecuatoriana party, believes its cryptocurrency idea is a crucial part of his country’s proposals. However, he doesn’t want to ride off from Ecuador’s dollarized economy:

We are looking at ways to create an Ecuadorian cryptocurrency. This does not mean that we are going to escape from dollarization. We must support dollarization.

The Ecuadorian-Chilean Mining Chamber also claimed that a series of investors want to allocate $320 million to finance a “Latin American gold refinery.” He also said that such cryptocurrency is backed by the yellow metal gold, like Venezuela’s petro with oil.

Andrade continued to talk about the national crypto plans on his agenda in case he gets elected on February 7, 2021:

“It is essential that we create the cryptocurrency for all the internal benefits within the country, such as internal transactions. This would work very well for Ecuador.

Could the Hypothetical Ecuadorian Cryptocurrency Be Another Venezuelan Petro?

Dollarization in Ecuador has been a sensitive topic in the public discussion. In 1999, the country adopted the dollar as its official currency. All of this happened within the context of a strong economic and inflationary crisis.

Jamil Mahuad, the then-president of Ecuador, was dismissed from his duties in January 2000, since political parties blamed him for unleashing the economic crisis. However, no president has been able to remove dollarization’s policy.

In terms of the crypto industry, the Latin American country is not a well-known player within the regional sphere. However, Ecuador has been showing some interest in blockchain adoption in the country’s banking and dairy sectors.

What do you think about a possible Ecuadorian cryptocurrency backed by gold? Let us know in the comments section below.

Major Latin American University Launches Specialization Featuring Crypto-Related Topics

18/12/2020 by Idelto Editor

One of the biggest and most laureate universities in Latin America approved the launch of a Financial Engineering specialization course, whose modules cover crypto and blockchain-related subjects, marking it a historic landmark across the region’s educational sector.

Mexico’s Biggest University Is Set to Teach Crypto Topics on Brand-New Specialization

According to the official announcement in its monthly bulletin, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) said that the new course would be available for both full-time and part-time students, with a duration of two semesters and four semesters, respectively.

The objective of the course reads as follows:

Graduates will be able to evaluate the profitability of public and private companies, develop financing strategies; design, develop and implement innovative financial instruments and processes; design investment portfolios, measure financial risk, among others.

However, the announcement didn’t provide full details on which subtopics will be dedicated to crypto matters. Still, press reports, citing Eloisa Cadenas, CEO of Mexico-based CryptoFintech, pointed out bitcoin and blockchain technology development as topics discussed within the course.

The UNAM clarified that Financial Engineering is aimed at those who have completed a degree in Engineering, Mathematics, Actuary or graduated from related careers in Physical Mathematical Sciences and Engineering.

The inception of crypto-related topics into the university marks the debut at higher-level educational institutions in Latin America. The course is not a diploma course, as it’s a specialization for those who already earned a degree.

UNAM’s Previous Flirting With Blockchain Topics

But this is not the first time that the Mexico City-based university gives room to blockchain-related topics within their academic curriculum.

On August 20, 2020, the UNAM’s Continuing Education Division of the Faculty of Accounting and Administration offered a diploma course in Financial Technologies, which covered fintech, law, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain topics.

According to Webometrics 2020-2, UNAM is the second-best university in Latin America, behind the University of Sao Paulo. The Mexican university is also known for being the educative institution where all three nation’s Nobel laureates — Alfonso García Robles, Mario Molina, and Octavio Paz — completed their studies.

What are your thoughts on this Mexico’s university announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Chilean NGO Prepares Draft to Include Crypto in New Constitution — Releases ‘Scam Blacklist’

08/12/2020 by Idelto Editor

A pro-Crypto Chilean NGO hosted a series of conferences on cryptocurrencies and blockchain topics for educational purposes, named Cryptonight 2020, where they announced the preparation of a proposal to submit it in the context of the drafting of a new constitution and the release of a crypto blacklist.

Chilean NGO to Submit a Proposal for Including Crypto-Related Matters in the Drafting of a New Constitution

Miguel Klagges, founder and president of ONG Bitcoin Chile, published a list of alleged crypto scams that have a background of stealing funds from investors, who are promised to get high returns in exchange for investments via bogus multi-level marketing schemes.

The list has 29 websites blacklisted on the ONG Bitcoin Chile site as of press time, and according to Klagges, they will keep updating it based on what regulators and press media report across the globe about crypto scams.

But such alleged fraudulent sites are not only offering bogus investment funds, as they also offer trading signals or referral schemes, posing in a first instance as academies to attract people, which turn to be Ponzi scams.

Constitutional Protection to the Chilean Crypto Industry?

The NGO’s second announcement is related to the new Constitution drafting process, which was approved in October during a referendum.

Klagges, accompanied by Patricio Bravo, a Chilean lawyer specialized in constitutional law, said that they’re working on the designing of a legal proposal that will be presented to the constitutionalists. They are expected to be elected in 2021, in charge to draft the new Carta Magna. Such a draft aims to “promote and protect” the crypto and blockchain industry in the country.

The initiative will have the participation of local crypto representatives who will seek in the draft enough constitutional guarantees for the development of the crypto sphere across the nation.

Jaime Bunzli, Buda.com director, commented during the panel about how bitcoin (BTC) is now being perceived among society:

The fear about the nature of Bitcoin, about the origin of the blockchain, among other things, has been lost more and more. It is already understood that it is something that is already here. Now what you have to do is start to understand it. One point in favor that bitcoin has at the moment is that it can open the doors to give use to other tools and other areas of blockchain technology.

What are your thoughts on the Chilean crypto industry possibly being considered in their upcoming new Carta Magna? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Chilean NGO Prepares Draft to Include Crypto in New Constitution — Releases ‘Scam Blacklist’ appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Latin Americans Turn to Bitcoin as Local Fiat Currencies Plunge

08/09/2020 by Idelto Editor

Latin Americans have embraced cryptocurrency as a store of value while their fiat currencies depreciate, a new report shows. Bitcoin adoption in the region is further driven by the lack of banking access and remittance needs.

Latin American Bitcoin Adoption

Blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis released a new study of cryptocurrency usage in Latin American countries based on on-chain data and interviews with experts in the region last week. The study is part of the firm’s Geography of Cryptocurrency Report, due to be released this month. Cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America is driven by factors such as a lack of banking access, remittance needs, and the devaluation of local fiat currencies.

Sebastian Villanueva, who manages the Chile operations of crypto exchange Satoshitango, explained that the lack of banking access for individuals and businesses is a major drive for cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America. “Lots of people here have uneven income because they do gig work for Uber or places like that, which makes it hard for them to get a bank account,” he said, asserting:

Without easy banking access, many young people in Latin America turn to cryptocurrency as a means of storing value.

Many Latin Americans use stablecoins like DAI and USDC to lock in their savings, Villanueva noted. Chainalysis explained that a significant share of the stablecoin transfer volume in the region is from traders using fiat to buy bitcoin or stablecoins, like tether, from local exchanges or P2P exchanges, and then use those funds to trade on larger exchanges like Binance that provides more trading pairs and greater liquidity. “This is a common pattern not just in Latin America, but in other developing regions as well,” the firm noted.

“Currency instability is another factor driving cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America,” Chainalysis claims, noting that “the amount of P2P trading volume in many Latin American countries rises as native currency depreciates.” The firm elaborated:

The correlations, each of which is statistically significant, suggest that cryptocurrency users in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile in particular are turning to cryptocurrency as a means to store value when their native fiat currencies are losing value.

“Venezuela and Argentina especially are printing money like crazy, so their fiat currencies are losing value. That drives a lot of cryptocurrency adoption,” Villanueva continued. “Some countries, like Argentina, limit the amount of U.S. dollars citizens can buy per month, which further limits their options for secure savings and increases the need for cryptocurrency.”

Reiterating that worsening economic conditions and associated civil unrest are driving cryptocurrency adoption in Latin American countries, Villanueva further noted:

Last October in Chile, there were mass protests over education, healthcare, and overall economic conditions. Fiat pay platforms saw huge decreases in activity during that time, but we grew by about 35% … People just want a safe way to store money, and there are no gatekeepers in crypto.

Latin America also has a robust crypto trading scene, with Brazil in the lead in terms of the most cryptocurrency usage by on-chain volume. Venezuela is a distant second, but the country accounts for the third-highest number of transfers on Localbitcoins and Paxful, two of the most popular worldwide P2P exchanges, as news.Bitcoin.com recently reported.

The region has the second-highest share of retail crypto activity, defined as transfers of less than $10,000 worth of cryptocurrency. However, professional traders still account for roughly 80% of all volume transferred in a given month; they prefer using large international exchanges like Binance rather than local exchanges to access more trading pairs and greater liquidity. Overall, Latin American countries sent $25 billion worth of cryptocurrency and received $24 billion worth in the past year, representing between 5% and 9% of all cryptocurrency activity in any given month, Chainalysis detailed.

Representatives from Brazil-headquartered crypto hedge fund Hashdex told Chainalysis that “a desire for potential high yield assets with uncorrelated returns is driving cryptocurrency adoption amongst professional investors, such as those representing pension funds and family offices.”

What do you think about bitcoin adoption in Latin America? Let us know in the comments section below.

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