Circle and BIND Group Partner to Bring Institutional USDC Access to Argentina

The company will provide access to USDC financial services through BEN, its regulated and licensed VASP, in compliance with national standards. The move is part of an expansion push across Latam, with a special focus on Argentina, where USDC is popular.

Key Takeaways

• Circle paired with BIND Group, letting Argentine firms access USDC liquidity via the BEN platform.
• BIND’s network will power USDC corporate treasuries, positioning the bank for looming crypto rule changes.
• Argentina emerged as a prime hub for Circle, with USDC capturing 46% of the country’s stablecoin volume.

Circle announces Strategic Institutional Alliance with BIND Group

Crypto companies are now seeking to integrate their services with large regional conglomerates, piggybacking on their infrastructure to introduce their products in regions such as Latam.

On Tuesday, Circle, the company behind USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin with a market capitalization of over $70 billion, announced a strategic alliance with BIND Group, a large Argentine financial services conglomerate.

BIND Group has over $2 billion in total assets, with BIND Banco Industrial, the banking entity at its core, focused on a service portfolio for institutions and other companies.

The conglomerate would allow these customers easy access to USDC liquidity through its infrastructure, using BEN, its virtual asset service provider (VASP), which will operate in compliance with national requirements to support payments, treasury management and digital asset transfer use cases.

This alliance puts BIND Group at the forefront of digital assets’ infrastructure development in Argentina, opening “a new chapter in the path we have been building to connect the traditional financial system with new technologies,” according to a press release.

Andrés Meta, Vice President at Bind, stressed that expanding institutional access to USDC represents a relevant step for Argentina’s digital asset ecosystem. “Through BEN, we seek to provide businesses with transparent, secure, and efficient access to the digital dollar infrastructure,” he stated.

This might migrate to the banking sector later, as reports indicate that the Central Bank is studying to lift the ban on financial institutions to offer crypto-based financial services.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire commented on why Argentina was the center of this movement by the company, assessing that the nation had become “a much more attractive destination for foreign investment.” “Two years ago, that wasn’t the case,” he told La Nacion during a trip to the country.

Argentina is one of the few markets in Latam where USDC reaches adoption levels rivaling those of its largest rival, USDT. Tether-backed Oobit revealed that Argentine users leveraged USDC to transact 46% of all stablecoin volumes, while USDT dominated other markets.