Crypto owners in Latin America see a future for the digital currency
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Following the collapse of FTX, cryptocurrencies have become a touchy subject in US politics and political circles, while global confidence in cryptoassets has fallen. But new Morning Consult research finds that adults in four Latin American countries still see a future for crypto as both legal tender and as a reliable form of payment, especially among crypto owners in those nations.
While the global crypto market is moving forward, US politicians and regulators are stalling
Although American adults report that they were less likely to buy or sell crypto in the past year, daily use of crypto and launches of new products continued in Latin America undiminished. Mastercard Inc.’s New Payments Index 2022 found that 51% of consumers in Latin American countries have made a transaction with cryptoassets. Together with the Latin American crypto exchange Bitso, Mastercard launched a physical debit card in Mexico that aims to simplify everyday purchases with crypto, while travel agency Despegar is partnering with Binance Pay to enable travelers in Argentina to pay for their trips with cryptocurrency.
Crypto firms operating in the US face a murky environment. After collapse of FTX sent the crypto markets up, politicians quickly distanced himself from crypto companies. US regulators, who have been accused of does not take a fixed position on how cryptoassets should be regulated has made recent moves to punish some of the industry’s biggest players: the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binancewhile the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that intends to sue Coinbase Global Inc.
Agnes Gambill West, a visiting senior fellow focused on decentralized finance at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, said that while talking about crypto carries a lot of political risk for lawmakers, the U.S. could fall behind its global peers when regulators are focused on “a increase in enforcement efforts, rather than progress with actual regulatory frameworks.”
“Congress should work to create a path for these businesses to succeed,” West said.
The surveys 16–20 March 2023 was conducted among a representative sample of 2,200 American adults and samples of approximately 1000 Argentinian, Chilean, Colombian and Mexican adults, with unweighted margins of error of +/-2 and +/-3 percentage points respectively.
