This week, Visa teamed up with a little-known but ambitious fintech startup Bridge to launch stablecoin-backed cards in six countries in Latin America. The word 'backed' is key here — we are talking about dollars, just digital ones. USDC, to be precise. And now, a citizen from Peru can walk into a store for a watermelon, pay with a stablecoin, and the seller receives pesos. And all of this — through Visa.
Wait a second… Do you understand what this means?
150 million merchants now accept digital dollars from citizens who have never had a normal bank account. This is not just fintech. This is a reboot of the financial system.
Inflation? Thank you, we're in digital.
In countries like Argentina, where inflation exceeds 200% per year, the idea of keeping savings in Argentine pesos looks like an attempt to hold water in a sieve. And here comes the alternative: stablecoins. Digital dollars, not subject to the whims of local central banks, which, to put it mildly, few trust.
And this is not a joke. In just 2022, the volume of transactions in stablecoins worldwide amounted to $6.8 trillion — more than PayPal or Mastercard. And yes, Latin America is one of the most active regions.
Mastercard did not stay aside. Of course.
Competition is the engine of progress. That’s why Mastercard, hearing Visa's footsteps, immediately pulled out its crypto trump cards: partnerships with Circle (the issuer of USDC), Paxos, and Nuvei. Their mission? To turn every smartphone and plastic card into a gateway for receiving stablecoins. It doesn't matter where you are — in Brazil, Colombia, or on the beach in Tulum — now you can pay for purchases with a stablecoin that will instantly convert into local currency. Magic? No, just crypto.
While the US discusses CBDC, Latin America is already using the digital dollar.
The irony is that while American politicians argue about whether they need a digital dollar, ordinary citizens in Latin America are already using it every day — through stablecoins. Just not from the government, but from the market. Paxos, Circle, Visa, Mastercard — these companies have already built a digital infrastructure without the involvement of officials and senators. As they say: fewer words — more transactions.
So who wins?
• Ordinary people — those whom traditional banks have ignored for decades.
• Fintech companies — which can now bypass the old banking system.
• Visa and Mastercard — which, instead of resisting, simply rode the wave.
And the losers? Perhaps it’s the central banks, watching their monopoly on money seep into blockchain. And this is just the beginning.