Bitso, a Latam-focused cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with chat-based payments provider Felix Pagos in order to offer Whatsapp-integrated remittances. The objective of this partnership is to put nearly instant chat-based remittances in the hands of Mexican and US users that might be intimidated by crypto tech otherwise.
Bitso to Power Felix Pagos Whatsapp-Integrated Remittances
Remittances have been a big use case for cryptocurrency, but the relative lack of knowledge of these tools has slowed adoption in this arena. Bitso, one of the biggest crypto exchanges in Latam, with more than six million users, has partnered with Felix Pagos, a chat-based payments provider, in order to facilitate the use of crypto for remittances using Whatsapp.
Through the use of Whatsapp, users of Felix Pagos will be able to send remittances without knowing they are even using cryptocurrencies. This would allow such remittances to reach audiences that are normally not crypto savvy, including the elderly. The transactions are said to take 45 seconds to send and enable near real-time settlement thanks to Bitso’s backend.
Carlos Lovera, development leader of Bitso Business, stated:
Working hand in hand with Félix Pago, we are demonstrating that remittances can be extremely easy, cheap, and fast to send and that cryptocurrencies are capable of directly benefiting people and solving their real-world problems.
The Mexico-US remittance corridor has great importance for both companies, as just in October it registered $5.36 billion sent by Mexicans living in the U.S. The service is only available to Mexicans at the time of launch, but Bitso and Felix Pagos aim to expand this functionality to other countries in Latam in the future.
Inner Workings
The system uses Bitso’s backend as a liquidity provider and bridge that allows Felix users to receive U.S. dollar remittances as Mexican pesos in a Mexico-based bank account. This is possible through the use of USDC, which acts as the base asset for the system, according to Stellar’s use case study.
However, Bitso is not new to the remittance business, as the company also provides similar services for its customers. By June, Bitso had facilitated remittances of $1 billion. Also, the company introduced a similar service in Colombia In July, powered by stablecoins to avoid volatility and inflation.
What do you think about the partnership between Bitso and Felix Pagos to facilitate Whatsapp remittances between Mexico and the US? Tell us in the comments section below.
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