Bitso Report Shows US Dollar-Linked Stablecoins Overtake Bitcoin in Latin America Purchases

Stablecoins overtook Bitcoin as the top purchased crypto asset in Latin America for the first time, according to a Bitso report cited by multiple outlets.

“Bitget App Trade smarter Open [](https://www”

Bitget

Cointelegraph said Bitso’s 2025 report found that “40% of crypto purchases in 2025 were US dollar-linked stablecoins such as Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC), while Bitcoin (BTC) accounted for 18%.”

bloomingbit

Bloomingbit likewise reported that Cointelegraph said on May 30 that “40% of all crypto purchases in 2025 went to dollar-pegged stablecoins,” while “Bitcoin accounted for 18% during the same period.”

The same shift was described as “the first time stablecoins surpassed Bitcoin in purchase share,” with the figures compiled from Bitso’s “user base of about 10 million.”

Bitget framed the same numbers as “Stablecoins now account for 40% of crypto buys in Latin America,” again pairing them with “just 18% of transactions.”

Across the coverage, the stablecoins highlighted were Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC, described as “dollar-pegged stablecoins” and “US dollar-linked stablecoins.”

The outlets also tied the change to what Bitso called “digital dollarization,” with Bloomingbit reporting that Bitso described the trend as “digital dollarization,” with stablecoins used “as a store of value and as a means of payment.”

The outlets attribute the stablecoin surge to economic conditions and the practical need for dollar-linked value in countries facing inflation and currency depreciation.

Cointelegraph described the shift as reflecting “growing pressure from local economic conditions,” noting that “stablecoins offer a relatively accessible way to store value and transact in US dollar equivalents.”

Cointelegraph

Bitget similarly said “Mounting economic pressures, persistent high inflation, and depreciating local currencies are cited as the main drivers behind this shift in the region’s crypto landscape.”

Bloomingbit linked the change to “inflation and currency depreciation have persisted,” and said Bitso described stablecoins as “digital dollarization,” used “both as a store of value and as a means of payment.”

Valora Analitik added a Colombia-specific explanation from Bitso executive Julián Colombo, who said crypto use has evolved beyond speculation and that “Crypto, beyond the speculative use it had for a long time, has many use cases in daily life.”

Colombo tied adoption to macroeconomic constraints, saying “It is very difficult to keep the unit of account in local currency… it is a problem that affects us all as a region,” and he also contrasted stablecoins with volatile assets by saying “it's not the same to have a stable coin, like USDC or USDT, as a volatile coin like Bitcoin, where one can lose value and the other not.”

In the same interview framing, Valora Analitik quoted Colombo saying “The most widespread use today I think is that of digital dollars, or technically called stablecoins,” and illustrated the payment utility with “If I’m in Buenos Aires and you’re in Colombia… I can pay my share with stablecoins and I don’t need to have a local bank account.”

While stablecoins’ purchase share rose, the reporting also highlights regulatory uncertainty as a brake on broader scaling, especially in Colombia.

“Stablecoins overtake Bitcoin in Latin America crypto purchases — Bitso A Bitso report shows shifting user behavior as dollar-linked stablecoins gain traction for everyday financial use across Latin America’s inflation-hit economies”

Cointelegraph

Valora Analitik said Colombo pointed to “the biggest challenge facing the sector in Colombia remains regulatory,” adding that “the absence of a legal framework has changed perceptions even within the ecosystem itself.”

Colombo was quoted saying, “Five years ago many users would say: ‘No, keep regulation away from me…’. Today that has changed,” and he linked the shift to scaling needs by saying, “That lack of regulation is what prevented us from bringing in a more mass audience and also a corporate audience, which needs clear rules of the game.”

He also argued that without a regulator, traditional firms hesitate, saying, “Conservative companies will need to know that there is a regulator behind who will respond if something happens with their money.”

Valora Analitik further reported that “Bill proposals have stalled or failed to reach consensus among key entities such as the Financial Superintendency, the Banco de la República and the Ministry of Finance,” and Colombo recalled, “We have already seen too many failed experiments that did not pass approvals in Congress.”

In parallel, other outlets described institutional momentum that depends on compliance and infrastructure.

Computer Weekly said Bitso Business presented its “Stablecoins Landscape in Latin America report” at the “Stablecoin Conference 2025 in Mexico City,” and it cited the Bank for International Settlements figure that stablecoins “surpassed $230 billion in market capitalization in 2025, compared with less than $20 billion in 2020.”

Other coverage expands the stablecoin story beyond purchase share in Latin America by focusing on real-world payment volumes and the breakdown of payment categories.

Cryptoast reported on an Artemis study with Castle Island and Dragonfly, saying it provided “for the first time a precise snapshot of real stablecoin payment volumes.”

Cryptoast

It put the scale at “$94.2 billion in payments processed between January 2023 and February 2025,” and said that implied an “annualized pace of $72.3 billion as of last February.”

Cryptoast also quoted U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, saying, “We will keep the United States as the world's dominant reserve currency, and we will use stablecoins to achieve that.”

The same article described the methodology as filtering out “noise,” stating that Artemis and partners analyzed data from “31 companies specializing in stablecoin payments,” with “20 provided their detailed data, while 11 others were estimated through on-chain data analysis and other auxiliary sources.”

It contrasted the study’s “$72.3 billion of real payments” with a much larger estimate of on-chain activity, saying Artemis estimates “the total annual on-chain stablecoin transaction volume at $26 trillion,” while the study could characterize only “$72.3 billion of real payments — barely 1% of the total.”

Cryptoast then broke down what counted as “authentic payments,” listing “B2B transfers, card payments, P2P sends, B2C transactions, and prefinancing operations,” and it said B2B dominated with “$36 billion annualized,” while peer-to-peer “stagnates at $18 billion annualized.”

Across the reporting, the forward-looking implications center on whether stablecoins will keep expanding in Latin America and how they fit alongside Bitcoin and local-currency stablecoins.

“More than $72 billion in payments — What if stablecoins are already the currency of tomorrow”

Cryptoast

Cointelegraph said Bitcoin’s share declined but remained important, quoting that “Bitcoin continues to function as Latin America’s primary long-term digital store of value,” and it added that Bitcoin was held in “52% of crypto portfolios across the region in 2025,” down from “53% the previous year.”

CryptoRank

Bitget similarly stated, “BTC remains the leading long-term store of digital value in Latin America,” and it repeated that “In 2025, BTC was held in 52% of crypto portfolios across the region,” framing the change as stablecoins taking everyday roles while Bitcoin keeps its longer-term function.

The Bitget coverage also pointed to regional product development, including that “In April, Brazil’s e-commerce giant Mercado Libre launched a native stablecoin called Meli Dollar,” facilitating “cross-border money transfers between Brazil, Mexico, and Chile,” and that it “discontinued its previous digital currency, Mercado Coin.”

Meanwhile, TradingView discussed the broader stablecoin landscape by asking about stablecoins “backed by Latin American currencies,” describing how US dollar-backed stablecoins like “USDT (Tether) and USDC (Circle)” dominate while local-currency stablecoins “such as the Brazilian real or the Argentine peso” seek alternatives.

It also emphasized that the “big question” is whether dollar-based stablecoins will “continue to completely dominate the market,” and it said the answer depends on whether local-currency stablecoins can deliver “real and convenient use cases,” including integration with local payment systems like “Pix in Brazil or SPEI transfers in Mexico.”

Finally, Computer Weekly described Bitso Business’s institutional expansion and product work, saying Bitso Business is “a payments infrastructure partner for more than 1,900 institutions,” and it reported that during “Stablecoin Conference 2025” it announced MXNB Hackathon winners including “Payments – Kustodia (Mexico)” and “DeFi – RoomFi (Mexico and Bolivia),” with the prize promoted in collaboration with “Arbitrum, QED Investors, and Portal.”