If users choose to make a payment with cryptocurrency, an automatic conversion to ARS (Argentine pesos) will be made through the Bitso app at an optimal exchange rate, as the press release says. The payment will then be sent to the merchant. If the payment is made directly with pesos, no charge applies.
The cryptocurrency platform in Latin America has over 5 million users and has chosen Argentina as the first country where QR payments will be available. The new function will be enabled progressively for Argentinean customers starting on 27 September 2022.
Bitso targeted this market in particular due to a high adoption rates of QR codes as a payment method, according to the Mastercard New Payments Index , which says 59% of Argentinians have used QR payments in the last year, compared to the 34% regional average.
According to the Mastercard report, 83% of people expect to pay with QR codes in the next year, well above the average in Latin America, which is 63%.
Recently, crypto custodian Everest tapped the LATAM-based crypto platform Bitso in order to provide users with the ability to receive cross-border transactions from the US, Europe, and Singapore into Mexico.
Everest provides its users with instant banking rails for USD, EUR, and other currencies, and through the partnership with Bitso, any person in Mexico can receive their funds in MXN pesos. The funds are transferable via Everest’s programmable and licensed stablecoins, which Everest converts through Bitso to pesos for Mexico-based users.
Using the crypto ecosystem for remittances avoids the days-long settlement process of traditional cross-border payments and can save families an additional USD 20 billion annually as the press release says.
In other parts of the globe, TerraPay, which is based in Netherlands, has partnered NPCI International Payments to provide merchant payments via UPI-enabled QR codes. Customers and merchants in India with an active Unified Payments Interface Id (UPI Id) will now be able to initiate and accept cross-border payments seamlessly by leveraging TerraPay's infrastructure and the UPI network.
In Nigeria people can now either scan QR codes or generate one-time tokens using Flutterwave’s new app that enables eNaira payments. eNaira is a digital currency issued and regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria as a medium of exchange and store of value.
And in Asia, Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have announced a cross-border QR payment link between Indonesia and Singapore. The linkage, which is targeted to be launched in the second half of 2023, will allow users to make retail payments by scanning the QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard) or NETS QR codes displayed by merchants.
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