Bitcoin dominates operations in services such as Bitrefill, Xpay, and Cryptobuyer. Stablecoins have gained ground in services like Bitwage.
According to the trading volumes that service providers report, Bitcoin dominates cryptocurrency operations in Latin America. Representatives of some of those companies, which focus on the use of Bitcoin for everyday expenses, recently confirmed this.
That group of companies included Bitrefill, Xpay (Panda Group), Cryptobuyer, Bitwage, and Krypton Market. The dominance of Bitcoin is evident in all cases, with percentages varying between 70% and 85% of its operations.
The case of Bitrefill is prominent, not only because the percentage is above 80%. Part of its operations occurs in the second layer of Bitcoin, through the Lightning Network (LN).
The percentage of transactions on LN is just 3%. However, when adding these to those of Bitcoin on the main chain there is a total of 85% on the platform, which also accepts payments in Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and DASH.
Concerning Xpay, the payment gateway that Panda Group sponsors, the increase in operations with BTC has attracted attention. Typson Sánchez, CTO of Panda, explained that Bitcoin went from having 50% of operations last year to having 70% this year.
The situation has been the same in other cases. In the second place, behind Bitcoin, there is a struggle to dominate transactions. Users are divided among the abovementioned cryptocurrencies, as well as some stablecoins.
The latter is precisely the main alternative to BTC that Bitwage customers use to pay salaries with cryptocurrencies. In total, 15% of the operations on said platform are in stablecoins, according to Fabiano Dias, executive vice president of business development.
Bitcoin Adoption Accelerates with COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 isolation measures advanced this year, at the same time that the adoption of cryptocurrencies increased. The representatives of these service providers confirmed this, based on the behavior of their customers.
While tourism fell, other industries compensated commercially for that drop, explained Mauro Peretti, executive of the Bitrefill gift card purchasing service. Video games in particular had significant growth, while electronic commerce remained. Also, the increase that occurred this year was very significant, compared to previous years, Peretti added.
The trading volumes of both Xpay and Bitwage decreased in March, which coincided with the beginning of the pandemic declaration. However, both companies recovered as 2020 progressed.
The isolation increased the demand for contactless payments and the increasing migration to the digital environment. For that reason, Jorge Farías, CEO of Cryptubuyer, believes that the pandemic helped accelerate the adoption of payments with cryptocurrencies in the region.
The executive said that the growth was exponential. He added that the process of [adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies], which was going to take between 3 and 4 years, has been reduced to less than two years.
The rise of Cryptobuyer has been clear in recent months, particularly in Venezuela. Supermarket chains and franchises like Pizza Hut have recently started to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using its points of sale.
By Alexander Salazar
