Crypto Owners in Latin America See a Future for the Digital Currency
For our latest data on cryptocurrency delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our financial news and analysis newsletter.
After the collapse of FTX, cryptocurrencies have become a touchy subject in American policy and political circles, while global trust in crypto assets has plummeted. 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.
As global crypto market moves forward, U.S. politicians and regulators hitting pause
Though U.S. adults report that they were less likely to purchase or sell crypto in the last year, everyday usage of crypto and new product launches in Latin America continue unabated. Mastercard Inc.’s New Payments Index 2022 found that 51% of consumers in Latin American countries have made a transaction with crypto assets. Along with the Latin American crypto exchange Bitso, Mastercard launched a physical debit card in Mexico aimed at facilitating everyday purchases with crypto, while online 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 United States face a foggier environment. After the collapse of FTX sent crypto markets reeling, politicians quickly distanced themselves from crypto companies. U.S. regulators, who have been accused of not taking a firm stance on how crypto assets should be regulated, have made recent moves to penalize some of the industry’s biggest players: the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance, while the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it intends to sue Coinbase Global Inc.
Agnes Gambill West, a visiting senior research fellow focusing on decentralized finance at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, said that while talking about crypto involves a lot of political risk for lawmakers, the United States could fall behind its global peers as regulators are focused on “an increase in enforcement actions, rather than progress on actual regulatory frameworks.”
“Congress should be working towards creating a pathway for these businesses to succeed,” West said.
The March 16-20, 2023, surveys were conducted among a representative sample of 2,200 U.S. adults and samples of roughly 1,000 Argentine, Chilean, Colombian and Mexican adults, with unweighted margins of error of +/-2 and +/-3 percentage points, respectively.
ncG1vNJzZmiooqR7rrvRp6Cnn5Oku7TBy61lnKedZLavv9Oapa1lmaPBpriOnKmyqKSkeq2t06KlZpmdmr%2Bqr8A%3D