🇲🇽 Bitso Wants GBM’s Crown

And Chainalysis shedding light on LatAm’s crypto expansion

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Don't miss this week's podcast where we break down the current stock tokenization trend, LatAm’s explosive crypto growth, and Cush’s favorite(?) nation, Bhutan.

🇲🇽 Bitso Wants GBM’s Crown

Bitso has officially outgrown its crypto roots. 

Latin America’s largest crypto platform has pivoted beyond crypto. Not pivoted away exactly, but beyond.

With the launch of its redesigned app (and branding), the Mexico-based unicorn now lets users invest in over 5,000 global stocks and ETFs alongside cryptocurrencies, in 24/7, instant, commission-free trading starting from just $1 USD.

The move marks a decisive pivot toward a broader investing ecosystem, one that directly targets GBM’s dominance in Mexico’s retail market. 

For years, GBM has been the default gateway for local stock investing. Bitso now wants that crown, in a move that to me seems like their positioning themselves as the “Robinhood of Latin America.”

It’s a bold bet, I'm not going to lie. Most exchanges double down on infrastructure or user acquisition, but this is a whole new path.

Maybe Vogel believes the future of TradFi and crypto is more intertwined than we think, and he's trying to get a head start.

As we've said here before in Frontera, every crypto company will integrate traditional services, and every traditional company will build on blockchain based rails.

It's the Finchain thesis playing out in realtime.

Will it pay out? We'll have to wait and find out.

🌎 Chainalysis Previews its 2025 Geography of Crypto Report 

Chainalysis released early data from its upcoming 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report, highlighting Latin America’s explosive rise as one of the most active crypto regions on earth.

The full report hasn’t dropped yet, but the preview reveals key trends shaping the LatAm’s financial future:

  • Regional momentum: Total monthly value received by LatAm climbed from $20.8B in 2022 to a peak of $87.7B in December 2024, totaling nearly $1.5T in three years, a 4x increase that shows the region’s momentum.

  • Brazil leads by far: With $318.8B received, Brazil alone accounts for almost one-third of all regional activity, outpacing Argentina ($93.9B), Mexico ($71.2B), Venezuela ($44.6B), and Colombia ($44.2B).

  • Top-five growth: Brazil posted 109.9% YoY growth, followed by Colombia and Mexico, signaling that institutional capital and remittance flows are accelerating beyond the traditional inflation-hedge narrative.

  • Stablecoins at the core: The Colombian and Argentine pesos now rank among the world’s top three currencies by share of CEX stablecoin purchases, reflecting how deeply dollarization has taken root across the region.

I'd like to give a massive shoutout to Chainalysis for bringing this data to light, and I can't wait to explore and analyze the full report once it's live.

🇧🇷 Brazil

Brazil’s Caixa Econômica Federal, in partnership with Hashdex, rolled out its first cryptocurrency fund. Open to all, it mirrors the Nasdaq Crypto Index and introduces regulated crypto exposure nationwide. 

Brazil’s National Treasury and Central Bank blocked a proposal to allocate 5% of national reserves to Bitcoin, citing risks to liquidity and currency stability.

🇱🇺 Luxembourg

Luxembourg’s sovereign fund allocated 1% of its portfolio into Bitcoin ETFs, becoming the first Eurozone state fund to invest in crypto via regulated ETFs. 

🇯🇵 Japan

Japan’s Financial Services Agency is slamming insider trading in crypto, signaling stricter enforcement and oversight in the digital asset space.

🇧🇹 Bhutan

Bhutan celebrates a historic milestone, becoming the first nation to anchor its digital ID system on Ethereum. The migration for 800K citizens will be completed by Q1 2026.

🪙 Stablecoins

Paxos accidentally minted 300T PYUSD in an internal transfer before quickly burning the excess. 300T, more than twice the GDP for every country on earth. Paxos confirmed it was a technical error and all funds remain safe.

Bridge filed with the OCC to launch Bridge Bank, enabling custody, stablecoin issuance, and reserve management under a unified federal framework.