🌎 Mexico: A Fertile Ground for Crypto Adoption

How Espacio Cripto and the Starknet Foundation are shaping Mexico’s crypto future

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Frontera EC & Joker
March 14, 2025

👋 Welcome to Frontera, the newsletter showcasing the reality of crypto in Latam. Join industry leaders from The Ethereum Foundation, The Solana Foundation, Binance, Crypto.com, dYdX and others to discover why Latin America has become one of the most dynamic and promising regions in the crypto world and how you can tap into this market.

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🇲🇽 TLDR – Key Data at a Glance:

  • Mexico’s remittance corridor: $64.7B in 2024, the largest globally. 

  • CAGR increase: 11.6% over the last five years.

  • Fintech ecosystem: 1,104 startups in total, with 803 homegrown and 301 foreign.

  • Crypto usage: 12% of fintechs focus on payments and remittances, while only 1.6% leverage crypto.

  • Result: a growing sector ready for disruption.

🌾 Mexico: A Fertile Ground for Crypto Adoption

Mexico is rapidly emerging as a fertile ground for crypto adoption, driven by a vibrant fintech ecosystem, high remittance flows, and a young tech-savvy population. 

It is a market primed for transformation due to its growing demand for financial solutions. The country's strategic position as a financial hub in Latin America, coupled with a rapidly evolving crypto culture, has opened doors for significant growth in the digital economy.

At the forefront of crypto adoption in Mexico is Espacio Cripto, a key player in the region's digital asset ecosystem. With a mission to educate, empower, and engage, Espacio Cripto has built the largest Web3 community in the country, playing a pivotal role in the introduction of crypto to the masses.

Our efforts are now amplified through a strategic partnership with the Starknet Foundation, a move set to accelerate blockchain adoption and innovation in Mexico and beyond. Together, we aim to leverage Starknet's cutting-edge layer 2 technology to provide local developers and entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to build next-gen decentralized applications.

Now we’ll deep dive into the potential of Mexico's crypto ecosystem, the strategic partnership fueling its future, and how these initiatives will shape the next wave of digital transformation in the region.

💸 Remittances and B2B Payments

Two sectors highlight why crypto makes sense for Mexico: remittances and B2B cross-border payments.

Mexico's remittance inflows are not only the largest in the world, with a record $64.7 billion USD in 2024, but also burdened by inefficiencies. Traditional fiat transfers from the U.S. to Mexico can take days and charge high fees, 6% on average, meaning that Mexican families pay more than $3 billion USD in aggregate fees each year. Crypto drastically improves this. By cutting out intermediaries and using blockchain rails, remittances can settle in minutes and at a fraction of the cost. 

The country’s remittance corridor has grown at a CAGR of 11.6% from 2020 to 2024, according to BBVA Research, highlighting the significant opportunity for crypto to improve efficiency in the sector.

The same is true for B2B payments across borders. Mexico’s economy is deeply intertwined with global trade, yet Mexican businesses often face slow, costly international bank wires. Fintech founders in the country see crypto as the solution. According to Finnovista's latest Fintech Radar report, Mexican fintech companies are already focusing on the two use cases mentioned above, and are building products already knowing that crypto is the answer to their problems. And the data backs this up. Already, 62% of blockchain based fintechs in the country use stablecoins for remittances, and 50% use them for international B2B trade.

📈 Market Size and Growth Potential

Mexico's crypto market is already sizable and on a strong growth trajectory. In 2023, Mexico ranked among the top 20 countries globally for cryptocurrency adoption by transaction volume. By 2025, the number of crypto users is expected to reach about 15.6 million, or roughly 12% of the population, up from an estimated 8-10 million in 2023. 

This adoption skews towards the young and tech-savvy: the largest demographic of crypto owners being the 18-24 year-olds. With a median age of 29.3, and a high smartphone population among the unbanked (35 million mexican adults), the country is ready to usher in a new age of digitalization and decentralization.

Beyond retail adoption, the startup and investment landscape in the country is expanding. The Finnovista Fintech Radar identified 29 crypto startups operating in Mexico. Notably, this sector was the most optimistic in revenue growth expectations for the following years, a sign of strong confidence in market potential. The country also attracted 60% of the venture capital that went into Brazil's fintech sector, Latin America's largest, in 2024.

All trends point upward: more users, more startups, and more capital, positioning Mexico’s crypto ecosystem for an accelerating adoption curve in the next few years.

 📡 Mexico’s Fintech Landscape

Insights from the Finnovista Fintech Radar Mexico 2025 report offer valuable context on the region’s broader financial technology ecosystem in which crypto is growing. 

Finnovista, founded in 2013 by Fermón Bueno and Andrés Fontao, is a leading innovation and venture capital firm that focuses on developing and supporting fintech companies across Latin America. Their flagship initiative, Finnosummit, brings together founders, investors, and banks alike to discuss the future of financial services.

In their latest Mexico report, Finnovista highlights how the fintech scene is maturing and crypto is becoming an integral part of it. Mexico is home to 1,104 fintech startups, 803 homegrown and 301 foreign, making it one of the largest fintech ecosystems in Latin America. 

Notably, 134 of these startups are focused on payments and remittances, with 45% of these processing over $30M USD in digital transactions in 2024 alone. However, only 18 of companies mentioned are focused on cryptocurrency, underscoring the emerging opportunity for growth in the sector, an opportunity that we at Espacio Cripto are hoping to capitalize on.

For the first time ever, stablecoins are mentioned in the report, showcasing their growing significance in Mexico's financial landscape. Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged 1:1 to stable assets like the US dollar, have gained popularity by enabling fast, low-cost cross-border transactions and offering a reliable store of value. Currently, 62% of crypto fintechs in Mexico use stablecoins for transactions, with the figure expected to rise to 77% in the near future. 

Their growing adoption will eventually extend beyond startups to mainstream businesses seeking more efficient solutions due to their benefits.

If you want to see Finnovista’s full report, click here.

 🧑‍🚀 Espacio Cripto + Starknet Foundation

Espacio Cripto’s partnership with the Starknet Foundation is poised to build upon these trends and accelerate crypto adoption in Mexico. By collaborating with Starknet, Espacio Cripto will help foster innovation, supporting high-potential projects through targeted grants and strategic community engagement.

One of the key initiatives under this collaboration is the creation of a Startup House in Monterrey, a dedicated space for founders and developers to build and access Starknet’s resources. This space will provide an immersive environment where local talent can collaborate, receive mentorship, and work on groundbreaking projects aimed at scaling blockchain solutions across Latam. With access to cutting-edge technology and support from the Starknet ecosystem, the Startup House will help nurture the next generation of crypto startups.

As the partnership unfolds, it is set to position Mexico at the forefront of blockchain innovation in the region, and at Frontera, we’ll keep you covered with the latest updates.

📰 Latam Crypto News 📰

🇧🇷 Brazil

Brazilian fintech Méliuz has allocated 10% of its cash reserves (US $4.1M) into Bitcoin, buying 45.72 BTC at $90,296 per coin to diversify its assets and strengthen their cash flow.

Ripple extends its partnership with Unicâmbio to offer 24/7 cross-border blockchain payments between Portugal and Brazil. The service promises fast, reliable, and affordable transactions for corporate clients.

Brazil’s crypto market unites against the Central Bank’s proposal to ban self-custody of stablecoins. Industry players warn it undermines decentralization and user autonomy, hindering adoption.

🇦🇷 Argentina

Binance named Andrés Ondarra as its new General Manager for Argentina and the Southern Cone, focusing on market expansion and user adoption in the region amidst crypto growth

Billionaire Tim Draper believes that Argentinians would opt for Bitcoin over the US dollar, citing Bitcoin’s potential as a hedge against Argentina’s high inflation and economic instability.

🇲🇽 Mexico

Nuevo León presents its digital identity project at ETH Denver, using blockchain technology to improve security and transparency for citizens’ data and services.

A recent report by YouGov revealed that 25% of Mexicans are willing to replace traditional banks with cryptocurrencies, highlighting a shift towards digital finance and growing crypto adoption in the country.

Additionally, 49% of Mexicans consider crypto to be the future of money and digital ownership, surpassing the global average by 10%,

🇨🇴 Colombia

Wenia, the crypto platform of Grupo Bancolombia, added EURC, a stablecoin pegged to the euro, to its growing portfolio. This expands user options for conversion, joining other assets like USDC,COPW, and major cryptocurrencies.

🇸🇻 El Salvador

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele refuses IMF’s request to stop Bitcoin purchases. Despite IMF’s restrictions, Bukele reaffirms that Bitcoin will remain a key part of the country’s economic strategy for the future.

El Salvador’s changing Bitcoin policy has led to an exodus of developers. Andres Kohl, a Bitcoin Lightning Network developer, left the country, citing disagreement with the government’s shifting stance on Bitcoin and the failed promises they made.