Latin America witnessed a dramatic rise in crypto adoption between the 20 countries and 14 dependents that make up the region in 2021.
Last year was a fascinating year for the region, with a host of conferences, associations and new regulations.
Let’s look at the top developments in blockchain and cryptocurrency in Latin America by 2021.
Colombian financial institutions partner with crypto exchanges
The Financial Superintendence of Colombia approved several partnerships among banks licensed in the country’s financial system, and cryptocurrency exchanges, in early 2021.
These nine partnerships were made up of major players in the cryptocurrency industry, such as Tyler and Binance.
According to the regulator, these approvals were granted within a regulatory sandbox that allows for testing technological solutions in world financial markets. The trial period will last up to one year.
Latin America Crypto Recognition
The rapid growth in digital currencies saw some Latin American countries officially recognize them as payment instruments in 2021. El Salvador’s official recognition Bitcoin ( Bitcoin) as legal currency — a world first — was a huge success, not only in Latin America, but around the globe.
The Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele approved the Bitcoin Law by a majority vote at the Legislative Assembly. It went into effect in September.
Cointelegraph reported in August 2021 that the Central Bank of Cuba would recognize cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether(ETH), Litecoin [LTC] and Tether (USDT] for investment and commercial transactions.
Julio Velarde (the president of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru), declared in November that the country will partner the central banks of India and Hong Kong to create its own digital currency.
Events on Blockchain in 2021
Many blockchain organizations and companies were forced to reevaluate their strategies after being locked down and then placed in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. They turned to cyberspace for help and attended conferences.
Blockchain Summit Latam
The Blockchain Summit LAtam conference has been regarded as one of the most significant crypto events in Latin America. It promotes the crypto and blockchain ecosystem in Latin America. It hosted 100 experts from the wider ecosystem in September 2021’s 5th edition.
More than 60 virtual spaces hosted discussions and seminars on blockchain technology over five days. Topics covered infrastructure and applications, Ibero-American ecosystem and business, decentralized financing, and blockchain in traditional financial systems.
LaBitConf
The ninth edition of the Spanish-speaking Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference was held in November 2021. Also known as LaBitConf. More than 150 industry professionals gave more than 40 presentations about topics like Bitcoin mining, regulation, privacy, security, and security.
Cripto Latin Fest
The fourth edition of Cryptolatin Fest was held in December. It combines online and in-person meetings, and lasted two days and featured talks and seminars by experts in the cryptocurrency industry.
Jose Rodriguez, Director of Blockchain Land at Talent Land and Elian Huesca (Community Lead for Latin America at Bitso), are two notable figures from the Latin American crypto ecosystem. They covered topics like blockchain, stablecoins and cybersecurity as well as legality, DeFi, adoption and legality.
Blockchain Land
The huge Spanish-language Blockchain Land conference was launched by the same company that produced Talent Land Latinoamerica. It was simultaneously broadcast in the Decentraland as well as Cryptovoxels metaverses.
This event was held in April and was one of the largest Spanish-speaking events. It was also considered the most innovative because it was simultaneously broadcast in two virtual worlds on Ethereum blockchain, where users could interact, talk, and network.
Latin America is seeing a boom in NFT
Nonfungible tokens were a big hit in Latin America and all over the world last year.
The shop of the Argentine NFT market SeSocioNFT was opened in September. It promotes and sells pieces by Latin American artists. According to reports, the platform plans to convert pieces from different artists into NFTs that can be sold on the market.
The first Ecuadorian digital art gallery, NFTs Exhibition UIDE, was created by the NFT boom. It is located at the International University of Ecuador. It featured 40 works from Ecuadorian artists, as well as 15 foreigners. The total value of the gallery was $160 million.
La Tokenia, a collective of Venezuelan artists, inaugurated their NFT exhibit on December.
In November, the Colombian government concluded a mining contract, which was registered as NFT by the Ethereum-compatible GoChain Blockchain.
