Bitso, a major Latin American cryptocurrency exchange and El Salvador cryptocurrency wallet, has officially announced its launch in Colombia.
As part of Bitso’s growth strategy in Colombia, Oslo Borz has appointed former MasterCard CEO Emilio Pardo as its new CEO, Cointelegraph reported Thursday.
Pardo is the former Head of Andean Business Development at Mastercard, where he has focused on fintech issues such as instant and cross-border financial transactions and open banking. He will now be responsible for developing Bitso’s strategy in Colombia to increase local crypto adoption and financial inclusion, focusing on Bitso’s strategic foundations, including education and security.
According to Pardo, Latin America is now experiencing one of the hottest moments of cryptocurrency adoption, and Colombia is no exception. He noted that the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies will not only benefit the Colombian financial system, but will also help educate and meet the needs of our customers and citizens.
Bitso’s Colombia operations are regulated by a large local financial authority Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia or the SFC. According to the announcement, in late 2021, SFC granted Bitso permission to operate under la Arenera, the regulatory framework for its sandbox and cryptopilot program.
Within this framework, Bitso began partnering with Colombia’s first commercial bank, Banco de Bogotá, in 2021 to test the exchange’s products and services.
“As an end-to-end regulated cryptocurrency platform, we can guarantee that this opportunity will put Colombia at the forefront of innovation and regulation,” Pardo said. He added that the cryptocurrency exchange is testing its products in a regulatory framework that takes into account the entire financial services ecosystem, including banks, stock exchanges, regulators and end users.
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Founded in Mexico in 2014, Bitso is one of the largest cryptocurrencies in Latin America, allowing users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The stock market has risen strongly in recent years, expanding to Argentina in February 2020 and then entering Brazil in April 2021.
The exchange is also based in El Salvador, which officially submitted bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021. Bitso notably partnered with Silvergate to facilitate US dollar transactions for El Salvador’s official Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, Chivo Wallet, at launch.
