August 20th Bitfinex Securities Market Inclusion Report unveils challenges and opportunities for Latam Capital Market

San Salvador, El Salvador – August 20, 2025 – Bitfinex Securities El Salvador Sa de CV has announced the release of its first Latin American Market Inclusion Report, highlighting the tokenization as a transformative socioeconomic opportunity in Latin America.

Building on expert interviews and regional analysis, this study identifies systematic barriers to Latin American capital markets, ranging from relatively high fees and complex bureaucratic hurdles to deep and low market financial literacy. These barriers are seen to contribute to the difficulties entrepreneurs and investors have experienced from accessing the region’s fair and efficient capital markets.

This report identifies the phenomenon of “liquidity delay” in the region. This refers to the current obstacles and inefficiencies of the traditional Ratum capital market that slowed capital flows and hindered investment. Factors contributing to this include high fees, complex regulations and limited market participation. Structural issues such as working hours, technology barriers, high start-up costs, and bureaucratic and regulatory hurdles have also been identified as pose challenges to business and investment growth in the region.

The Bitfinex Securities Market Inclusion report includes analysis, findings and experts from eight different Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

Tokenization is presented as providing a solution to the “liquidity latency” problem identified in Latin America. Tokenized assets digitize the ownership of bonds, stocks or funds by issuing tokens on a blockchain in which each token corresponds to the fund’s share or unit. This structure allows for decentralized ownership and management, with several other benefits, including accessibility, transparency, and efficiency.

By increasing issuance costs to just 2-4%, reducing listing times to 60-90 days, and enabling fractional ownership, blockchain-based securities can make investments dramatically more comprehensive and efficient.

“Tokenization represents the first true opportunity for a generation to rethink finance,” said Jesse Knutson, Head of Operations at Bitfinex Securities. “It reduces costs, accelerates access and creates more direct connections between issuers and investors.”

With regulatory advances in countries such as El Salvador, Argentina and Brazil, the report suggests that Latin America is being put into place on its own to accept tokenized markets. For example, in 2021, El Salvador became the first country to recognize Bitcoin as fiat currency, and despite recent changes to the law, digital asset technology has firmly established itself in the country’s economy. In 2023, El Salvador passed the Digital Asset Issuance Act (Lead) to create a fully regulated framework for tokenization of assets.

Bitfinex Securities calls this not only economic change, but broader socioeconomic opportunities for the region to overcome historic barriers and promote growth.

As shown in the report, tokenization technologies could improve accessibility for both capital and investors by reducing the costs of capital investment and capital raising, accelerating the pace of listings, providing investment efficiency, accessibility, democratization, and expanding financial inclusion. Tokenization may open up brighter opportunities in the region, and the report highlights and dives these possibilities.

To access the report, click here: (go.bitfinex.com/market-inclusion-report)

About Bitfinex Securities

Founded in 2021, Bitfinex Securities seeks to apply the technological benefits of the digital asset industry to the global capital market. Through real-time settlements, 24/7 trading, access to global liquidity, and the ability to independent assets, Bitfinex Securities allows for more efficient, cheaper and easier interactions between investors and issuers.

Bitfinex Securities Media Contact Information

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]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/bitfinex-securities-market-inclusion-report-unveils-challenges-and-opportunities-for-latam-capital-market/feed/ 0 54230 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/kraken-expanded-access-across-latam-and-launched-local-funding-in-argentina-and-mexico/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/kraken-expanded-access-across-latam-and-launched-local-funding-in-argentina-and-mexico/#respond Fri, 11 Jul 2025 07:26:10 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/kraken-expanded-access-across-latam-and-launched-local-funding-in-argentina-and-mexico/

With deepening our investment in Latin America, we deploy local currency funds in Argentina and Mexico, two of the region’s most active crypto markets. This extension reflects our continued commitment to building trustworthy, compliant, localized infrastructure to support crypto adoption around the world.

These new integrations allow clients from both countries to deposit their local currencies (ARS and MXN) through reliable domestic payment methods, providing faster and simpler access to Kraken’s full suite of Crypto services.

Furthermore, within Argentina, Kraken is now officially registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) with Argentina’s Comisiónnacional de Valores (CNV), ensuring that it can operate in full compliance with local regulations.

Local funding, global access

By enabling local rails, Kraken eliminates one of the most persistent friction points for crypto users across LATAM. The challenge is to efficiently and safely convert local currency into digital assets. Deposits created through these new payment methods will be automatically converted to USD at competitive, transparent FX rates, reducing the need for international wire or third-party apps.

This upgrade will provide international clients with a seamless, end-to-end experience built on speed, security and trust.

“Argentina and Mexico are one of the most active and resilient crypto communities in the world,” said Mark Greenberg, global consumer director at Kraken. “The local railroads and clarity of regulations make Kraken uniquely positioned to enable clients from both countries to access the global crypto economy with confidence, security and ease.”

The momentum of the code across Ratum

Each of these markets highlights a different dimension of the growing importance of Crypto in this region.

• Argentina: With inflation rates exceeding 200% in 2023, crypto, especially stubcoin, has become an important tool for Argentina to save money and send money.
• Mexico: Mexico, a regional powerhouse for cryptocurrency, is at the forefront of blockchain innovation, dollar-controlled demand and retail adoption.

These markets represent millions of current and future crypto clients who need localized tools to fully participate in the ecosystem.

Local experience backed by our global standards

Our Argentine and Mexican clients benefit from:

• Local currency funds through reliable domestic payment railways
• Automatic USD conversion at competitive transparent rates
• Access to over 350 digital assets
• Industry-leading security and global liquidity
• Multilingual support for 24/7
• Localized product experiences and educational content

This expansion reflects a broader strategy in the region. It combines global infrastructure with local relevance to provide the confidence and tools to effectively navigate the crypto economy wherever your clients are.

Long term building

With these launches, Kraken is positioned himself for his long-term impact in Latin America. Product upgrades aren’t the only way to revitalize local payment rails and the clarity of regulations provided by Argentina’s CNV VASP registration. They are strategic milestones that strengthen Kraken’s commitment to financial inclusion, responsible innovation and client empowerment in one of the most promising regions in crypto.

Kraken will continue to expand its presence across Latin America with the same values ​​that have led security, transparency and trust since 2011.

Let’s start today kraken.com And trade with confidence on your terms.

Feniix Energy, an energy firm based in Latin America, has completed a $75 million acquisition of a live oil and gas operation using blockchain tokenization, according to a statement shared with CryptoSlate on June 17.

Global Settlement, a blockchain firm specializing in real-world assets (RWAs), executed the deal through its GSX Protocol.

The protocol enabled instant settlements, reduced counterparty risk, and lowered transaction fees. It also introduced full transparency throughout the funding and ownership process.

Notably, stablecoins were used to settle the transaction, removing the need for traditional banking intermediaries. This marked a pivotal move in financing capital-intensive projects using decentralized finance tools.

The acquisition was structured entirely through tokenized debt and equity. An unnamed leading commodity trading company provided the debt portion, making this the first known instance of a fully tokenized capital structure used to purchase an active energy asset.

Feniix Energy’s Director, Alejandro Uribe, described the deal as a milestone in energy financing. He said that blockchain brought unmatched speed, visibility, and trust features that were often missing in traditional financing.

He said:

“Our collaboration with Global Settlement demonstrates how innovation can bridge traditional finance and the crypto economy, unlocking substantial value for our stakeholders.”

Global Settlement founder Kyle Sonlin added that the deal aimed to showcase the real-world benefits of tokenization. He emphasized that on-chain infrastructure helped streamline capital flows and reduce operational costs.

Industry observers see this acquisition as a breakthrough moment for blockchain adoption in traditional sectors. The use of tokenized capital in live infrastructure deals signals growing confidence in blockchain as a financing tool for institutional-grade projects.

The timing of this deal aligns with rising momentum in the RWA space. A June 16 report by CoinGecko noted that the tokenized treasuries market surged 544.8% in 2024, reaching an all-time high of $5.6 billion by April 2025.

The following is an update from Ethereum Foundation Fellow Chuy Cepeda.

Our identities hold immense power. In a time when people take great pride in using multiple pseudonyms or personas, we often think about how to identify ourselves. I identify as a native of Monterrey, Mexico, a Latin-American, a son, brother, father, husband, engineer, Ph.D., entrepreneur, dog lover, hitchhiker, and a believer that democracies are suffering.

Looking back at a time when I started meeting people from different countries and gaining a better understanding of their access to public services, I recall becoming aware of how far away this reality was for Mexicans. I realized that as my home city grew, many decisions made by the government were unplanned or colluded. I learned that my home country of Mexico was one of the least favored countries according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. I realized that these problems are not limited to me and my home country, but affect people everywhere.

I now feel a profound empathy for anyone who can’t look to the government for better transport, proper education, and health services. All the while, I see technology making bigger and bigger impacts in the daily lives of people all around Latin America and beyond. Think for a minute about this: while people are becoming more digital and expect personalized and real-time services, public institutions are unable to meet those expectations.

Citizens face inefficiencies, a lack of transparency and red tape, and a terrible experience when it comes to interacting with their governments. This is a global crisis of institutional agility and trust that erodes possibilities to prosper, and it’s why Democracy as an ideal is suffering.

So I decided to incorporate a new part of my identity: I co-founded OS City to improve the landscape of government services in the modern world, essentially by bringing public institutions into the web3 paradigm. In other words, to use blockchains to digitize government services and give citizens their decentralized digital identity.

The OS City team

Upgrading Bureaucracy

From birth certificates to driver’s licenses and academic records, when we are asked to identify who we are as citizens, this is about sharing our personal information or credentials, usually notarized by the government of the place we come from. Depending on where that is, those records could be located in a fancy networked database (as is the case for Estonian citizens), but more likely what we need when we need an ‘official identity’ actually resides in the specialized passport printers of a stuffy government building, or spread about in filing cabinets of various state bank branches, or maybe it’s nowhere at all!

When we “use” these representations of our identity, what we are actually doing is getting separate bureaucratic systems to interoperate. If the visa stamps from one customs office in Country A fit onto the passport pages of Country B, that’s ‘good enough’ for us in most cases. But when that basic interoperability has stricter requirements, or when it breaks down, that’s where we get into trouble. Office A requires an original stamped document from Office B, which is closed after 3pm, and requires a notarized letter from Department C, which is in a different part of the city and needs approval first from Office A… some of us are all too familiar with being trapped in this sort of prison of paperwork. This is where collusion and corruption are born, where we start the snowball effect that ends up in a terrible response to social distress, economic growth, and climate change.

The fundamental challenge is that everyone must have an identity, but it is simply not true that everyone has an interoperable representation of identity. That’s where I believe we can do better. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s certainly not going to happen all at once, but if we start in the right direction, we might end up in a place we want to be at. Part of our work to solve these issues led us to develop an application-specific wallet called Soberana, which is meant to be used to hold and manage digital identities.

Blockchains are by design built from interoperable and standardized components that can combine and integrate into all sorts of ways. Any blockchain built to be Ethereum or EVM-compatible will follow the same set of standards. So at Soberana, that is our starting point. Unfortunately, we work in a design space that must allow for some degree of centralization, i.e. a government authority must approve a record or identity.

Nevertheless, we start with a small kernel of identity that is still compatible with the open, permissionless systems of the web3 world. Starting from that compatibility makes it a lot easier to improve and build more complex systems around it over time – a network economy of digital services, both centralized and decentralized. The goal here is maximum compatibility for a digital identity: whether you’re using it for a centralized government notary, a proprietary banking transaction or a public NFT registry, your ID should move between those systems seamlessly and securely.

As we add more and more functionality, we’ll be able to verify, port, and share that identity through a whole suite of government services that all connect to each other. From marriages to mortgages, all of the paperwork that requires identity could be de-bureaucratized and made painless by using the right infrastructure. By starting small and with this first piece of the puzzle, we pave a way towards broader institutional reform, using technology wisely to increase the legitimacy of the public sector as a whole.

This past year, we have focused on rolling out an official citizen digital identity through an online government-run portal, where citizens obtain a wallet that serves as their digital identity and digital document-holder. Citizens can port and use official documents in their digital wallets, as well as share and renew these documents.

At the moment, these documents are limited to commercial permits, construction permits, city inspector credentials, tax payer statements, among others; but we are working to expand and incorporate as many documents as possible to be compatible with local governments in Mexico and Argentina.

The Long View

I understand now that bureaucracies are merely inertial inefficiencies of governments that have lost the excitement of innovation. That’s why I believe blockchains have an enormous potential to lead us into a new era of openness and collaboration that helps to increase the legitimacy of the public sector. With the help and support of public sector leaders, we can create radical change in the government sector, and even make it a prosperous field for business, fostering the digital, economic, and social transitions of our nations.

My short-term vision is to be able to offer citizens the possibility to own their official records, to eliminate duplicate efforts in every government process, to make government transactions traceable and transparent, and to foster the first government standard for blockchain verifiable credentials. This will hopefully show the international public sector that interoperability can succeed when we put citizens in the center, when innovation promotes regulation and not the other way around.

In the long term, I hope that we can all work together to rethink governance and identity. We are starting by rethinking and reinventing the way governments, individuals and companies interact among themselves; in a decentralized digital world, interactions are not state or market-centric, but community and citizen-oriented. This implies a new ecosystemic vision where the government, startups, academia and civil organizations jointly explore public problems, seek (and transfer) appropriate solutions and feed on their learnings. It is not the state hiring suppliers, but the state interacting with other actors to solve society’s most pressing problems. I believe a new digital identity is one step that will allow governments, citizens, and communities to get the most out of blockchain technology, fostering prosperity through a network of citizen-centric digital services.

For more about the Ethereum Foundation Fellowship Program, read this blog post.