Latam Crypto Report #19: Buenos Aires Rolls Out Decentralized Identity

Also: Chainalysis drops its 2024 geography report; Avalanche unveils Visa crypto card

Hola a todos! 👋

Greetings from Buenos Aires and welcome back to the 🌎Latam Crypto Report, where contributor Kristin Majcher compiles and analyzes the biggest crypto stories in the region. We’ll cover the biggest news in October 🎃 in this edition.

Top stories include:

• The City of Buenos Aires reaching a major milestone in the rollout of its QuarkID digital identity platform

• Major takeaways from Chainalysis’ highly anticipated 2024 Geography of Crypto report

• The Avalanche Foundation choosing Latin America as the first market for its Visa crypto credit card

💡Attending LABITCONF in Buenos Aires this week? Get in touch with Brazil Crypto Report’s founder Aaron Stanley to chat about what you’re working on.

Please hit the “subscribe” button below and ask your friends to follow our reports! Feel free to follow Kristin on X and LinkedIn to share any crypto news or say hello.

Buenos Aires Rolls Out Blockchain-Based Digital Identity

Just ahead of LABITCOINF, the City of Buenos Aires announced a major milestone in providing its QuarkID decentralized identity solution to the more than 3.6 million users of its miBA platform. The website offers residents a central place to handle paperwork and schedule appointments at city offices.

“The new integration allows miBA users to manage more than 60 documents more securely and add credentials from other organizations that adopt QuarkID's decentralized technology,” a city press release states. The platform provides access to documents such as birth certificates and student certificates, and will soon include driver’s licenses.

QuarkID uses zero-knowledge proofs through zkSync.

Diego Fernandez, Secretary of Innovation and Digital Transformation for the city of Buenos Aires, told CoinDesk:

“The decision from the beginning was to create a self-sovereign identity system so that citizens can have privacy and security over the documents they acquire ownership of.”

(CoinDesk, Buenos Aires Press Release, CriptoNoticias, CoinTelegraph, Unchained, BeInCrypto)

Chainalysis Reveals Latin America Trends

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis released its highly anticipated 2024 Geography of Crypto Report this month, and per usual it’s packed with insights about adoption in the Latin American region. Plus, this year’s edition also features a cameo from none other than Brazil Crypto Report Founder Aaron Stanley.

Some of the biggest takeaways in this year’s edition include:

• Latin America was the fifth-largest region Chainalysis studied, receiving almost $415 billion in crypto between July 2023 and June 2024.

• Argentina received the most crypto of any Latin American country (about $91.1 billion), followed by Brazil (about $90.3 billion).

• Four Latin American countries made the Crypto Adoption Index this year: Brazil (10th place), Venezuela (13th place), Mexico (14th place) and Argentina (15th place).

• The amount of crypto Venezuela received jumped 110% year-over-year during the period studied — the highest increase of any country in the region.

(Chainalysis Blog, CoinDesk, BeInCrypto)

Avalanche launches crypto credit card in Latam

The Avalanche Foundation teamed up with Visa to introduce a new crypto credit card, which will first be available to Latin American residents in several countries.

As the Avalanche Card website explains:

“The Avalanche card is a spend card that allows you to make purchases against the value of your crypto assets anywhere Visa is accepted. Avalanche Card is not a bank and is not FDIC insured. Cryptocurrency is not legal tender and may lose value.”

• Cardholders will be able to spend WAVAX, USDC and sAVAX on purchases through merchants accepting Visa.

• While the card will launch in Latin America and the Caribbean, not all countries in the region will have access. Residents of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua cannot use the card.

• The credit card offered through Rain Liquidity will be available in physical and digital form.

• Signing up for the card includes access to a self-custody wallet. A waitlist is open.

The news came just after Avalanche Summit LATAM wrapped up in Buenos Aires. Catch those sessions on YouTube here.

(CriptoFacil, CoinTelegraph, BeInCrypto, Benzinga)

🗞 Latin America Crypto News Rundown

Here’s where we break down Latin America crypto headlines from the past few weeks, organized by country and region. If you don’t see a country listed, it’s simply due to the news flow during a particular week.

Regional News

• Borderless Capital launched a $50 million fund focused on developing Web3 projects in Latin America. (CoinDesk)

• The Avalanche Foundation’s Ecosystem Lead Leandro Davo chatted with CoinDesk about solving “real-world problems” in Latin America. (CoinDesk)

• Travel, games and weddings are some of the most popular use cases for the Binance Pay app in Latin America, Cointelegraph Brasil reported. (Cointelegraph)

• Crypto exchange Bitso named Aimee Fearon as its new CFO. (BeInCrypto, Cointelegraph, La Nación)

• Bitget hired former Binance executive Min Lin to help the crypto exchange grow in Latin America. (The Block, Bitget)

• P2P exchange El Dorado teamed up with TRON DAO to promote Tether (USDT) adoption in the region. (BeInCrypto, El Dorado)

• Ripple partnered with Bitso and others to provide its new dollar-pegged stablecoin, $RLUSD. (Reuters, Fortune, The Block)

South America

🇦🇷 Argentina

• Argentina’s Vice President Victoria Villarruel met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to talk about crypto and other topics, saying on Instagram that the two were “fellow bitcoiners.” (Portal do Bitcoin, Livecoins, CriptoNoticias, Cointelegraph)

• Latin American blockchain LaChain will hold its first hackathon in Buenos Aires between November 7 and 9, where the first-place winner will snag 5,000 críptodolars (UXD). (BeInCrypto, LaChain on X)

• President Javier Milei plans to replace the country’s tax authority with a smaller agency. (Buenos Aires Times, BeInCrypto, Todo Noticias)

• Regulations for crypto providers are advancing. (Livecoins, CriptoNoticias, Ámbito)

• Argentina’s Financial Information Unit (UIF in Spanish) carried out its first inspection of a crypto exchange in Rosario. (Portal Do Bitcoin, BeInCrypto, CriptoNoticias)

• Cardano Co-Founder Charles Hoskinson met with President Javier Milei. (La Nación, BeInCrypto, Ámbito)

• Crypto exchange ArgenBTC shut down after more than a decade due to “multiple reasons.” (BeInCrypto, CriptoNoticias, iProUP)

• The Argentina Blockchain Foundation is offering free classes on how to avoid crypto scams. (BeInCrypto)

• Authorities are investigating RainbowEX, a crypto platform suspected of running a pyramid scheme. (La Nación, Ámbito, Infobae, BeInCrypto)

• The Argentine Fintech Chamber (CAF in Spanish) has warned its users about the rise of these crypto pyramid schemes. (BeInCrypto)

• The Argentine Football Association (AFA) partnered with Win Investments to finance soccer clubs through tokenization. (BeInCrypto, El Cronista, Forbes Argentina)

🇧🇴 Bolivia

• Banco Bisa is incorporating a Tether (USDT) custody service, becoming one of the first institutions to take advantage of the central bank’s recent decision to reverse a longstanding crypto ban. (El Deber, Cointelegraph, CriptoNoticias, BeInCrypto)

• More than 200 women participated in a “Women in Crypto” workshop in Cochabamba. (BeInCrypto)

🇨🇴 Colombia

• Neobank Littio is switching its vault holdings from Ethereum (ETH) to Avalanche (AVAX). (CoinDesk)

• Bancolombia’s crypto subsidiary Wenia will launch the WeniaCard, a digital MasterCard for payments. (BeInCrypto, Forbes Colombia)

🇵🇾 Paraguay

• Hackers took down systems for Paraguay’s education and science ministry, demanding a ransom of 15 bitcoins. (Última Hora, Livecoins, ABC)

• Authorities are continuing their crackdown on illegal mining operations, with national police seizing more than 100 machines in the latest raid. (BeInCrypto, ABC, CriptoNoticias)

🇺🇾Uruguay

• Montevideo hosted the sixth edition of the Blockchain Summit Global, where participants discussed the next steps for Uruguay’s crypto regulations on the heels of a new law regulating digital assets. (El Observador)

🇻🇪Venezuela

• Andrés Bello Catholic University launched an academy focused on blockchain, trading and crypto. (BeInCrypto)

Central America, Mexico & Caribbean

🇨🇷 Costa Rica

• Costa Rica’s attorney general said bitcoin is being used to fund a smear campaign against himself and others. (BeInCrypto, El Observador)

🇭🇳 Honduras

• The National Autonomous University of Honduras hosted the seventh edition of the Cripto Latin Fest. (BeInCrypto, Cointelegraph)

🇲🇽 Mexico

• Mexico’s national manufacturing chamber is promoting technologies including blockchain in the agribusiness sector, BeInCrypto reported. (BeInCrypto)

• Mexico City’s cyber police issued recommendations and warnings about financial scams and phishing. (BeInCrypto, Cointelegraph)

🇵🇦 Panama

• The Panamanian Capital Markets Association (APAMEC) urged the government to regulate digital assets. (BeInCrypto, CriptoNoticias)

• Financial law experts from the Latin American Congress on Financial Law (COLADE) discussed crypto and other topics at a recent meeting. (BeInCrypto)

🇸🇻 El Salvador

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended that El Salvador narrow the scope of its bitcoin law as part of its talks with the country, Reuters and other outlets reported. (Reuters, Cointelegraph, Forbes, Exame)

• The vast majority of Salvadorans do not transact with crypto, a recent survey from Francisco Gavidia University found. (Cointelegraph, Portal do Bitcoin CriptoFácil)