Latin American cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin has secured $200 million in Series B financing from SoftBank, marking one of the largest crypto-focused funding rounds in the region’s history. Mercado Bitcoin will use the funds to expand its offerings and invest in new infrastructure to meet the growing demand for digital assets in the region, the São Paulo, Brazil-based exchange announced Thursday. 2TM Group, the parent company behind Mercado Bitcoin, is now estimated to be worth $2.1 billion, making it the eighth-largest unicorn on the continent. In the venture capital industry, the term “unicorn” describes privately-held startups with a value of …

The World Bank has refused El Salvador’s request for help on the country’s transition to adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. It cited issues with Bitcoin’s environmental impact and transparency as reasons why it will not support El Salvador’s move to adopt Bitcoin as an officially accepted currency. “While the government did approach us for assistance on Bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support, given the environmental and transparency shortcomings,” a World Bank spokesperson said. The World Bank did note, however, that it can help El Salvador in other ways, including “currency transparency and regulatory processes.” Earlier …

Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, has warned that El Salvador’s recent adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender has the potential to “completely collapse the economy.” Steve Hanke served as a senior economist under President Ronald Reagan’s administration from 1981 to 1982. Hanke has previously described BTC as a speculative asset “with a fundamental value of zero,” and in April, the 78-year-old tweeted, “Cryptocurrencies are the future of money. Bitcoin is not.” Speaking with streaming financial news provider Kitco News on Tuesday, the university professor noted that BTC hodlers from regions such as Russia …

GoldConnect, a Latin American telecommunications wholesaler, announced Tuesday that it will allow customers to pay with cryptocurrencies through payment processor BitPay, marking another important milestone in the region’s embrace of Bitcoin (BTC). Crypto payments can be made directly through LatamConnect, a platform that connects directly with BitPay. Crypto payments made through BitPay are settled in local fiat currency. GoldConnect said its embrace of crypto payments reflects growing demand for such services across the 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries in which it operates. "As a disruptive telecom provider in the LATAM region, we must continuously embrace the latest technologies and …

The cryptocurrency space and wider economic community continue to laud a historic move by El Salvador to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. The Central American country has become the first in the world to do so, and the move has also spurred a handful of other Central and South American countries to begin taking steps toward that same eventuality. Unsurprisingly, the move has made waves in the cryptocurrency community, with Bitcoin (BTC) proponents, in particular, highlighting the significance of the legislative change in driving cryptocurrency adoption. There have been some critics who have highlighted potential coercive undertones of the law, …

While it was billed as the “one of the biggest announcements in Bitcoin's history,” the market seems to be puzzling over the landmark reveal that El Salvador’s sitting President will be submitting legislation to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. In a presentation at Bitcoin 2021 from Jack Mallers, CEO of Zap — developers of a previously low-profile Lightning Network wallet app named Strike — Mallers showed a short video from Salvadorian president Nayib Bukele where the leader of the 104th largest global economy announced the historic legislation. Strike currently has a 3.2 out of 5 star rating on the Google …

Airtm, a Mexico City-based digital wallet and exchange operator, has received $15 million in funding from the Stellar Development Foundation, or SDF, as it seeks to expand financial services and cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America. The investment, which is the largest SDF has ever made as part of its Enterprise Fund, will enable Airtm to integrate with Stellar in the coming year. As part of the Stellar network, Airtm will be able to better provide its users with access to global financial services. “Airtm exists because financial systems throughout the developing world are not aligned with their people's needs and …

Mexican cryptocurrency exchange Bitso has concluded a $250 million Series C capital raise, putting it in the upper echelons of Latin America’s fintech industry. The latest investment round gives Bitso a total value of $2.2 billion, making it the first Latin American cryptocurrency exchange to be worth over $1 billion. It’s also the third-most valuable fintech company on the continent. The raise was led by Tiger Global and Coatue, with additional contributions from Valor Capital Group, Bond and Paradigm. Daniel Vogel, Bitso’s co-founder and CEO, said it took the exchange six years to get its first million customers and less …

Ripio, a digital asset company based in Argentina, has purchased major Brazilian crypto exchange BitcoinTrade. According to Argentinian newspaper Ambito, the acquisition is part of Ripio’s plan to spread across South America. BitcoinTrade is reportedly the second-largest crypto exchange in the country by volume. Ripio CEO and co-founder Sebastián Serrano said it made the purchase to “expand access to the world of digital assets” in the region. "We are convinced that Ripio is the best company to extend the path we are building with BitcoinTrade in Brazil,” said BitcoinTrade founder Carlos Andre Montenegro. Founded in 2013, Ripio claims to be …

Argentine congressman Ignacio Torres plans to present a bill addressing cryptocurrencies to the Argentine Parliament. Cointelegraph en Español spoke with Efraín Barraza, Operations Manager of Athena Bitcoin in Argentina, and Alberto Vega, CEO of Bithan, who collaborated on the draft and who are looking to discuss a legal framework for crypto in Argentina. Both Barraza and Vega remarked that their interest is to have a conversation and debate about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in Argentina, so that they do not get left behind, and considering that other countries are already discussing these issues. Efraín Barraza explained: "We understand that the …

Latin American crypto exchange Airtm has been appointed to redistribute $18 million seized by U.S. authorities to 62,000 healthcare workers. These funds were taken in relation to a corruption case involving Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela. According to Matt Ahlborg, data scientist at UsefulTulips, Coinbase-backed Airtm is well-known for being a censorship-resistant P2P exchange. He noted that Venezuelan users have long accounted for a significant part of Airtm’s customer database. Juan Guaidó, recognized by several countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader, also recognized Airtm for their efforts in the fight against government censorship. Guaidó then outlined his own plans for …

LocalBitcoins data shows that the weekly trading volume in Chile’s fiat currency recently touched a new all-time high. Cryptocurrency market data platform CoinDance shows that LocalBitcoins volume in Chile reached a new record of over 330 million Chilean pesos in the week ending on April 4. Chile LocalBitcoins volume in Chilean Pesos. Source: CoinDance It is worth noting that these figures are also influenced by the depreciation of the Chilean peso. According to data from foreign exchange website XE, the currency fell by over 6.45% against the dollar in the last two months alone — and has lost a whopping …