Circle Powers First Blockchain-Powered, Cross-Border Payment Platform Between U.S. and Mexico

Here at Circle, our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of financial value. Everything we do is founded on a vision of an open, inclusive, and efficient global economy where people and businesses everywhere can more freely connect and transact with each other through a new generation of innovative financial services. 

Global remittances are a highly valued resource for many individuals and families, and are ultimately critical for raising economic prosperity across the world. Despite the importance of remittances, there are several inefficiencies such as slow delivery and high fees for sending money across borders. Leveraging Circle’s powerful APIs and USDC, Bitso, the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in Latin America with more than 3 million users, is launching Bitso Shift to make it easier, faster, and more secure for Mexican residents to send and receive cross-border blockchain payments to or from the U.S.  

“The opportunity for Circle and USDC to be part of making cross-border exchanges seamless between the U.S. and Mexico -- the world’s largest exchange corridor -- is tremendous,” said Jeremy Allaire, Co-founder and CEO of Circle. “We’re thrilled to be part of Bitso Shift’s innovation demonstrating how blockchain technologies can bring scalable, efficient and cost-effective solutions to market.”

The U.S. and Mexico remittance corridor is the largest in the world. In 2020, remittances increased nearly 10% to over $40B¹ as thousands of Mexican migrants living in the U.S. sent money back home during the coronavirus pandemic. Remittances continue to increase in 2021², largely attributed to the growth of migrant labor in the U.S. Despite this, USD accounts for many Mexican residents are generally inaccessible and historically burdened by high costs, low transparency, complicated processes, and long processing times. To close this gap, Bitso Shift is integrating with Circle’s payment infrastructure to enable its users to complete efficient and secure deposits and withdrawals via domestic wire transfers, make blockchain payments across the U.S. or Mexico, and ultimately convert between Mexican Pesos (MXN) and supported stablecoins at competitive market rates.

“At Bitso, we believe crypto’s borderless nature can be leveraged to address some of the financial sector’s most pressing problems,” said Daniel Vogel, Co-founder and CEO of Bitso. “We’re incredibly excited to partner with Circle to offer a regulated, low-cost product that will support Mexican freelancers and businesses to thrive in the global digital economy.” 

Wire transfers to Bitso Shift are processed in 24 to 48 hours through fully regulated institutions and at highly competitive exchange rates, and in-app exchanges between Mexican Pesos and supported stablecoins are processed within seconds at low costs. No minimum balance or transaction volume is required.

Now integrated with Circle’s payment infrastructure and USDC, Bitso Shift will offer more affordable and secure access to cross-border payment options, and thus expand commercial opportunities for small businesses and economic prosperity for more communities.

_{1 World Bank}

_{2 Bloomberg}