Argentina’s Fintech Startup Uala Launches Crypto Exchange Services

Uala, a fintech sponsored by billionaires George Soros and Steve Cohen, will start offering a Bitcoin and Ether trading platform for clients in Argentina, where the use of crypto has soared. In the upcoming weeks, About 4.5 million customers in the South American nation will be able to access the service.

Users Can Exchange Bitcoin and Ether for Pesos

The Argentine fintech company Uala entered the crypto market on Friday by enabling users to purchase and sell Bitcoin and Ether using pesos via its app.

Ualá, valued at $2.5 billion in its most recent investment round, has achieved another major victory with the move. A variety of financial services are already offered by the business using a prepaid card controlled by a mobile app.

To manage the additional items, Uala, which has more than 5 million members across Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia, established its firm called Uanex, according to founder and CEO Pierpaolo Barbieri.

The New Argentine Service is Made Available by Uala

According to Andres Rodriguez Ledermann, vice president of Wealth Management at Uala, the new service will initially only be accessible to a few users. However, in the upcoming weeks, it will be made available to all 4.5 million of the company’s Argentine customers.

Withdrawals are not possible on the platform; only purchases and trades of cryptocurrencies are permitted. A 250 pesos ($0.83) minimum transaction is required.

Rodriguez Ledermann noted that regulatory issues need to be researched but did not completely rule out the possibility of the business enabling crypto trading in Mexico and Colombia, where it also operates.

Uala is the first financial player to introduce crypto trading in Argentina. Since the two banks were prohibited from providing their clients with access to cryptos by the country’s central bank in May.

According to Rodriguez Ledermann, Uala established a unique company called Uanex to offer its crypto service to adhere to local legislation in Argentina. Uanex is situated in England and uses the Latin American cryptocurrency firm Bitso as its source of crypto liquidity.

Uala raised $350 million in Series D fundraising in August with the help of affiliates of SoftBank and Tencent. The investment resulted in the company’s post-money valuation of $2.45 billion.

Binance Joins Argentina’s Boom in Crypto Prepaid Cards

In collaboration with Mastercard, the major crypto exchange Binance has introduced a crypto prepaid card in Argentina.

According to Binance, led by CEO Changpeng Zhao, the product is currently in beta testing and will be broadly accessible in the upcoming weeks. Argentina will grant All exchange customers with valid IDs will be granted access.

At local and international retailers using Mastercard, cardholders can make purchases and settle invoices using cryptos. At the point of purchase, one will instantly convert crypto to money. Additionally, clients can receive up to 8% in crypto-cash back.

Argentina is the first nation in Latin America to introduce a Binance crypto card. In August 2020, the business introduced a comparable product in the European Economic Area.