Gemini — a New York-based regulated crypto exchange and wallet — will partner with Bancolombia (Colombia’s largest bank) for cryptocurrency trading.
The partnership, slated to take effect next week, will allow the bank’s customers to trade four virtual currencies, including Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ether, and Bitcoin.
With the help of Gemini exchange, a limited number of users will be able to buy crypto coins directly from their bank accounts. Gemini’s role is to provide crypto-specific infrastructure for custody and exchange of crypto assets.
Whether other bank users will be able to withdraw their crypto assets directly from their bank accounts is subject to confirmation.
A step to the strategic expansion of crypto
Through an official announcement made Monday (about the exchange partnering with the Bank of Colombia), Gemini said that [the partnership] will “serve as an important step toward the strategic expansion of Gemini’s presence in Latin America.”
Gemini believes that digital currencies will develop Latin America “as interest in blockchain and innovative technologies proliferates throughout the region.”
Colombia’s financial regulator — the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (or SFC) — will run a test of the partnership for at least a year as a pilot program. The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit permitted the year-long pilot program last year.
The SFC disclosed in January that it had chosen nine crypto exchanges — including Bitso (a Mexican exchange), Binance, and Gemini — that applied for the partnership project.
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Crypto has gone mainstream in Latin America
Since El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as a national currency in September, cryptocurrencies have gone mainstream in Latin America.
JP Thieriot, chief executive of Uphold (a multi-currency investment platform), said that Latin American nations stand to gain much from cryptocurrencies.
Gemini cryptocurrency exchange so far operates in more than 60 countries, including Uruguay, Peru, Panama, El Salvador, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina in Latin America.
Besides operating in Colombia, the Bank of Colombia has branches also in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama. The bank boasts at least 17.8 million users from across Latin America, according to a last year’s internal report.
Banco de Bogota (Colombia’s oldest bank) announced early this year that it will also join the crypto bandwagon through a pilot program with a crypto exchange or via a “regulatory sandbox” (also known as “la Arenera”).
It was reported last year in March that the world’s third-largest number of crypto users hail from Latin American nations. That says a lot about Latin America’s move towards mainstream crypto adoption.
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