Bitso chose Argentina as the first Latin American country to launch its new product, cryptocurrency payments via QR codes.
With over 5 million users, Bitso is one of Latin America’s leading cryptocurrency exchange companies. Launching QR code payments on its platform is part of Bitso’s strategy to create financial products based on cryptocurrency that people can use on a daily basis.
Bitso launched this new product in Argentina because this is the country with the highest adoption of QR payments in the region. According to Mastercard’s Payments Index study, almost 60% of Argentines paid via QR codes in the last year, and 83% plan to do so in the next year. This figure is significantly lower outside Argentina: on average, 34% of Latin Americans use QR payments. According to Santiago Alvarado, Bitso’s Senior Vice President of Product:
“The case of Argentina is extremely important because a product with these characteristics will help people protect themselves from the adverse conditions facing their economy, such as inflation and currency devaluation.”
Bitso’s system is interoperable, which means that customers can pay by scanning the QR codes of other payment companies that Argentina’s Central Bank authorizes. Bitso’s 1 million users in Argentina will now be able to pay their daily expenses from their Bitso app as long as the merchant accepts QR payments.
Read more on El Economista.