Latin American Traders Choose USDC and USDT to Protect Their Funds
Date: 2025-03-17 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
Over the past two years, the volume of stablecoin purchases on Bitso has increased by 9%. Among digital assets, USDC became the leader in 2023, accounting for 24% of all purchased assets, while USDT accounted for 15% of the total trading volume. According to Bitso, high inflation and depreciation of national currencies are forcing local traders to look for alternative ways to preserve capital, and stablecoins are becoming the optimal choice.
Meanwhile, interest in Bitcoin on Bitso has noticeably decreased. In 2024, its share in trading volume fell to 22%, although in the second half of 2023 this figure was 38%. Bitso representatives attribute this to the fact that users prefer to hold BTC in anticipation of further growth in value. It is noteworthy that the decline in Bitcoin purchases coincided with a period of rally in the market, when the BTC price exceeded $100,000 in December.
In Latin America, the most active USDT users were residents of Argentina, who accounted for 50% of all transactions with this token on Bitso. This is due to the difficult economic situation in the country, where inflation is reaching record levels. In 2024, Argentine users of the exchange mainly purchased USDT (50%) and USDC (22%). At the same time, the share of Bitcoin purchases in the country turned out to be the lowest among Latin American markets and amounted to only 8% of the total Bitso trading volume. Unlike Argentina, users from Brazil and Mexico still showed high interest in Bitcoin - 22% and 25% of all cryptocurrency purchases, respectively, were for BTC.
For the convenience of users, Bitso previously added support for the Tron blockchain in USDT transactions, which made it possible to speed up transfers and reduce fees. According to DefiLlama, the global capitalization of stablecoins exceeded $212 billion in January 2025, confirming their growing popularity among investors.
