Bitso Business Launches MXNB, a Mexican Peso-Pegged Stablecoin on the Arbitrum Network

Bitso Business, an arm of the Mexican crypto exchange Bitso, will launch a Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin on the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum.

Bitso Business, an arm of the Mexican crypto exchange Bitso, is launching a Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin on the Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 network Arbitrum.

The stablecoin, MXNB, will be issued and managed by Bitso’s newly established subsidiary Juno and will be fully fiat-backed by Mexican pesos on a one-to-one basis, Bitso Business said in a March 26 statement.

The subsidiary will also operate independently from Bitso to manage the stablecoin and will conduct regular audits of its reserves, providing public attestation reports on the token’s website.

The move comes as the World Bank estimated that Mexico received $61 billion in remittances per year, mostly from the US, making it the world’s second-largest receiver.

Meanwhile, Chainalysis reported that the Latin American region was the second-fastest growing globally for crypto transaction value received.

From July 2023 to June 2024, Latin Americans received $415 billion in crypto — a year-on-year increase of around 42.5%.

The crypto research firm added that the majority of the transaction value was in stablecoins, which were being used to facilitate cross-border payments and promote foreign investment and trade in the regional economies.

“A primary use case for MXNB could be to promote foreign investment and trade in Latin American economies by providing a more efficient way to do business compared to traditional finance infrastructure,” said Bitso Business’s head of stablecoins, Ben Reid.

“Global companies face significant monetary challenges when it comes to serving customers in new markets and conducting cross-border payments, including high intermediary costs and inefficient transaction times.”

The subsidiary is planning to launch MXNB in Q2 2024.