Bitso

Private

Latin America's largest cryptocurrency exchange and the region's first crypto unicorn, serving retail and institutional clients across Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia with trading, remittances, and business payment rails.

Mexico City, Mexico | Crypto Exchange | Est. 2014 | Website

At a Glance

Strength

First crypto unicorn in Latin America, reaching a $2.2B valuation in 2021 with $331M in total funding — giving it a significant capital and brand advantage over every regional competitor.

Challenge

The $2.2B unicorn valuation was set at the peak of the 2021 crypto bull market. In a more sober environment, the mark-to-market reality is almost certainly lower — a gap that matters for future fundraising and any IPO ambitions.

Opportunity

The US-Mexico remittance corridor processed over $60B in 2023 — Bitso Business's crypto rails offer material cost savings over SWIFT and wire-based remittances, and market share gains here dwarf anything achievable from retail trading revenue.

Overview

Bitso was founded in Mexico City in 2014 by Daniel Vogel, Pablo González, Rodrigo Medellín, and Ben Peters with a clear thesis: Latin America's financial system was broken for ordinary people, and cryptocurrency could fix it. The entry point was Bitcoin trading in Mexican pesos — a mundane product that was, at the time, essentially impossible to access through any mainstream channel in Mexico.

A decade later, Bitso is the dominant crypto exchange in Latin America with operations in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, total funding of $331 million, and a $2.2 billion valuation achieved in its 2021 Series C — making it the region's first crypto unicorn.

Business Model

Bitso operates three distinct but complementary products. The Bitso App serves retail users with a consumer-friendly interface for buying, selling, and holding crypto. Bitso Alpha is a professional trading platform targeting active traders and institutional clients who require deeper order books and more sophisticated execution tools. Bitso Business is the highest-potential segment — a suite of cross-border payment products built on crypto rails that enables companies to move money internationally faster and cheaper than the traditional correspondent banking system.

The remittance opportunity is particularly significant. The US-Mexico corridor alone moves over $60 billion annually, and Bitso Business positions the company as infrastructure for digital remittances — a fee-per-transaction model with structural cost advantages over incumbents.

Regulatory Standing

Bitso has invested meaningfully in regulatory credibility. It holds a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) license from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission — the only LATAM exchange with this credential — and is the first and only exchange in the region to provide insurance on user funds. These differentiators matter in a market where retail trust has been damaged by global exchange failures.

LATAM Crypto Tailwinds

Crypto adoption in Latin America increased 116% in 2024, reaching approximately 55 million users across the region. The drivers are structural: persistent inflation in Argentina and Colombia, a large unbanked population, high remittance dependency, and growing demand for digital dollar savings in markets with volatile local currencies. Bitso's 2024 Crypto Landscape in Latin America report found that digital dollar purchases were approaching 50% of total crypto transactions regionally — a shift that validates Bitso Business's focus on stablecoin payment rails.

Competitive Position

Bitso's primary competitive threat is Binance, which launched its regulated Medá entity in Mexico with a planned $53M investment and added Colombian peso pairs on its global platform. Binance's liquidity depth and global product suite are formidable, but Bitso's decade of local banking relationships, regulatory licenses, and Spanish-language customer trust are not easily replicated. The competitive question heading into 2025 is whether local depth or global scale wins in LATAM crypto infrastructure.

Editorial Assessment

The Good, The Bad & Opportunities

The Good

First crypto unicorn in Latin America, reaching a $2.2B valuation in 2021 with $331M in total funding — giving it a significant capital and brand advantage over every regional competitor.
The US-Mexico remittance corridor is one of the world's largest by volume, and Bitso Business has positioned the company as a critical infrastructure layer for digital remittances, capturing a market that legacy players like Western Union have long monopolized on high fees.
Gibraltar DLT license and status as the only LATAM exchange to insure user funds are meaningful trust differentiators in a market where retail crypto users have experienced repeated exchange failures globally.
Bitso Alpha gives the platform institutional-grade depth, enabling it to compete for corporate treasury and B2B payment flows — a much higher ARPU segment than retail trading.
The 116% surge in LATAM crypto adoption in 2024 is structural, not cyclical — driven by inflation hedging, remittances, and digital dollar demand — and Bitso is the best-positioned regional player to capture it.

The Challenge

The $2.2B unicorn valuation was set at the peak of the 2021 crypto bull market. In a more sober environment, the mark-to-market reality is almost certainly lower — a gap that matters for future fundraising and any IPO ambitions.
Trading fee revenue is highly correlated with crypto market volatility — in bear market cycles, volumes collapse, revenues compress, and exchange-dependent business models face severe pressure.
New-comers entry into LATAM brings world-scale competition into Bitso's core markets.
Expanding from Mexico into Brazil and Argentina means operating in markets with distinct regulatory frameworks, banking relationships, and competitive dynamics — execution complexity scales faster than revenue in multi-country fintech.

Opportunities

The US-Mexico remittance corridor processed over $60B in 2023 — Bitso Business's crypto rails offer material cost savings over SWIFT and wire-based remittances, and market share gains here dwarf anything achievable from retail trading revenue.
Argentina's persistent peso devaluation and dollar-denominated savings demand have made it one of the world's most active crypto markets — Bitso's early presence and local peso pairs position it to capture significant digital dollar savings flows.
The SME cross-border payment market across LATAM is largely unaddressed by traditional banks — Bitso Business could expand its institutional product suite to serve exporters, importers, and platforms needing multi-currency treasury solutions.
Regulatory risk is rising across LATAM — Mexico's crypto regulation remains in flux, and stricter AML/KYC requirements or licensing regimes in any of Bitso's four markets could impose significant compliance costs. However, Bitso is no stranger to such challenges, having navigated the complex regulatory landscape in Mexico since its inception.

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