According to a report by Cointelegraph, Banco Industrial, the largest commercial bank in Guatemala, announced the integration of blockchain infrastructure service provider SukuPay into its mobile banking app Zigi. Users can instantly receive remittances from the United States for a fixed fee of $0.99 without the need to hold a cryptocurrency wallet or international bank account (IBAN). SukuPay stated that this collaboration marks the first adoption of native cryptocurrency protocols by a large retail bank in Latin America.

Banco Industrial was established in 1968 and has over 1,600 service points in Guatemala. In 2023, its asset scale reached 1.5 billion Quetzals (approximately $20 million), with operations covering regions including Honduras, Panama, and El Salvador. The bank holds a significant position in the local remittance market, and cross-border remittances are a key pillar of the Latin American economy—total remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to reach $161 billion in 2024, while traditional channel fees range from 6% to 10%.

SukuPay CEO Yonathan Lapchik pointed out that Guatemala receives $21 billion in remittances annually, and blockchain technology can reduce settlement time from several days to instant while alleviating fee pressure. He stated, "The key to achieving widespread adoption of blockchain is to make the technology invisible to users," and emphasized that stablecoins are a core tool for optimizing cross-border payment efficiency.

According to a 2024 report by Chainalysis, Latin America is the second-fastest region in the world for cryptocurrency adoption, but Guatemala lags behind neighboring countries like Argentina and Brazil. Currently, over 90% of cryptocurrency transactions in the region involve stablecoins, which are more suited for everyday payment scenarios due to their peg to fiat currency.