“Emerging Market Stablecoins” Are Finding Product Market Fit

Image of a 20 Mexican Peso bill which is equivalent to one US dollar (19.738800 pesos) in Mexico ... More City, on June 2, 2022. - A stable political outlook in the face of uncertainty in Colombia, Brazil and Chile, and an attractive financial yield are encouraging a surprisingly strong Mexican peso, despite the country's tepid economic outlook, experts say. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP) (Photo by PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images)
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US dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDT and USDC are all the rage this year, but tokens denominated in local market currencies are starting to find product market fit.
Bitso, the Mexico-based crypto platform with operations across Latin America, has launched a new stablecoin pegged to the Mexican peso.
Announced at the Merge Buenos Aires conference on March 25, the MXNB stablecoin will live on the Arbitrum network, an Ethereum Layer 2 network that has become a popular rail for stablecoins in emerging market countries.
The idea is that MXNB will allow foreign companies doing business in Mexico to more easily convert in and out of Mexican pesos, thereby making it easier to offer products and services to Mexican customers.
Similar products have gained traction in the Latin America region as of late.
Bitso recently joined forces with Mercado Bitcoin and Foxbit to launch a Brazilian real-pegged stablecoin called BRL1. Brazil’s Braza Bank announced a real-pegged token of its own on the XRP Ledger in February.
These products join the party of other BRL-paired stablecoins such as BRZ — issued by Transfero, and BRLA — issued by BRLA Digital — that have been operative in the market for several years.