🔥 When the National Payment System Embraces USDT: Bolivia’s Stablecoin Experiment and Regulatory Boundaries

Bolivia is seriously considering adding Tether’s USDT to its national payment system. After the central bank’s 2024 policy unlock, crypto trading volume surged to $430 million within a year, reaching $294 million in the first half of 2025—up more than 530% year over year. Behind this are tight US dollar liquidity and exchange-rate fluctuations—companies and residents are using USDT as an alternative for cross-border payments and a store of value.
The Minister of Economy has been clear: this is a technical assessment phase that does not confer legal-tender status, while strengthening anti–money laundering oversight to meet the FATF gray list requirements. The state-owned bank Yasta wallet has already gone live with USDT purchases, and state energy company YPFB plans to use cryptocurrencies to pay for energy imports. Government-level involvement makes this experiment carry more weight.
The risk lies in the stablecoin’s “stability” depending on Tether’s reserve management, while transparency controversies have never fully gone away. Once USDT faces a trust crisis, the payment system will be directly under strain. Under FATF gray-list pressure, the intensity of AML measures may limit practical use cases. Bolivia’s choice looks more like a stress test: whether the national payment system can embrace stablecoins while still holding the financial security boundary. Other emerging markets facing similar predicaments are watching.
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