Washington’s new stablecoin law just rewrote the rules of the crypto game—and across Latin America, financial officials, entrepreneurs, and lawmakers are scrambling to decide whether to follow the blueprint or defend digital sovereignty on their terms.
A Lifeline for Unstable Currencies
When Donald Trump signed the United States’ first stablecoin law last week, most Latin American capitals took note—but some listened as if it were a starting pistol. In countries where inflation has eroded savings and eroded trust in central banks, the promise of dollar-pegged digital assets suddenly felt more tangible.
“This kind of legislation can reassure international investors,” said Erik Rincón Cárdenas, a Colombian legal-tech expert, in an interview with EFE. “It tells the world that there’s a clear, federal structure around stablecoins—and that opens the door for Latin American projects to plug into that trust.”
For families in Argentina, Venezuela, or parts of Peru, that trust is already ingrained. Millions use stablecoins not as speculation, but as a means of survival—ways to park value when their national currencies can’t keep pace with weekly price fluctuations.
Silvina Moschini, co-founder of Unicorns and strategist at the U.S.-listed Unicoin, told EFE the law validates what many have long practiced. “Now people in Caracas or Córdoba can point to a G7 nation and say, ‘See? This is real. This is safe.’” And that, she said, is the psychological breakthrough Latin America’s crypto innovators have been waiting for.
Imitation or Surrender?
But for every celebration, there’s a caution flag. The U.S. framework might bring clarity—but whose clarity is it? And at what cost?
Rincón doesn’t mince words. “If we just copy and paste what Washington does, we risk losing regulatory independence,” he told EFE. The fine print in the U.S. law, for instance, channels all dollar-backed assets through custodians based in the United States. That means fees flow to New York banks. User data, meanwhile, could end up on servers far outside Latin American control.
It’s not just about pride—it’s about leverage. Bigger economies, such as Brazil and Mexico, might tailor their versions, preserving room for innovation. Smaller nations—such as Honduras, Paraguay, and parts of Central America—could be left with a mismatched, half-baked framework that confuses more than it helps.
Still, shared rules could bring long-overdue order to a space prone to scams and vaporware. Crypto exchanges in Latin America have faced a range of challenges, including data breaches and Ponzi schemes. A baseline of international standards could make it more difficult for bad actors to move from one jurisdiction to another.
Even basic taxation, Rincón pointed out, is a mess. “Users don’t know whether crypto profits are treated as capital gains, income, or VAT. A harmonized framework would mean fewer lawsuits and more revenue,” he said.
Bitcoin’s Test Case in the Spotlight
Nowhere is this debate more fraught than in El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele made Bitcoin legal tender in 2021, turning his country into a crypto laboratory. Today, the government’s digital wallet holds over 6,200 Bitcoin—currently worth more than US$750 million on paper—thanks mainly to a market rally earlier this year.
But skeptics aren’t convinced the gains are real for ordinary people. Former Central Reserve Bank president Carlos Acevedo told local reporters that the price surge “won’t dynamize the real economy.” Bukele insists otherwise, citing jumps in tourism and remittance flows.
Now, with the U.S. law spotlighting stablecoins backed by government treasuries—not volatile tokens like Bitcoin—El Salvador faces a potential crossroads. If ministries begin using stablecoins to pay suppliers or disburse contracts, Bitcoin’s privileged legal status could quietly erode. A quiet policy tug-of-war may be coming.
In Colombia, the debate is less dramatic but equally urgent. Senators are reviewing a new crypto bill after usage surged 17% last year, placing the country among the top five globally in adoption, according to Senate data. Moschini believes Washington’s move will tip the scales. “It marks a before and after,” she told EFE. “Now Bogotá can’t delay the consumer protections and onboarding rules banks have been asking for.”
Brazil, meanwhile, is already testing a central bank digital currency and drafting its stablecoin statute. Chile and Mexico remain slower and more consultative—but no less open to change.
Digital Dollars, Global Politics
For open democracies, the question is not just economic—it’s existential. How much digital infrastructure are they willing to outsource to the United States?
Rincón thinks it’s a live-wire issue. “Sovereignty is at stake,” he said. “We’ll see parliaments asking whether foreign legislation should shape our financial code.”
In places like Cuba or Venezuela, the path is likely to diverge. Cut off from U.S. finance, they may lean into alternatives like Russia’s MIR or China’s e-CNY, building crypto systems designed to bypass American scrutiny altogether.
For others, the U.S. law raises different hopes. Hidden in the fine print is a clause exempting athletes and artists from certain travel restrictions tied to major international events—an acknowledgment that crypto now intersects with diplomacy and visas.
Latin American entrepreneurs hope that tech visas will follow. “Let us pitch our start-ups to U.S. investors without drowning in red tape,” said one São Paulo blockchain founder who declined to be named. “The law opens a door—we just want a chance to walk through it.”
EFE@Rodrigo Sura
Coins, Cables, and the Battle for Inclusion
Moschini and Rincón agree: rules alone won’t change lives. “Crypto’s power lies in the hands of the excluded,” she told EFE. “But that power is wasted without education, broadband, and reliable infrastructure.”
She imagines a near-future where Colombian coffee growers sell tokenized futures to diaspora buyers, or Brazilian favelas mint neighborhood tokens redeemable for groceries. But none of that happens, she warns, if platforms fear international litigation or mining operations fold over electricity costs—as they did in Argentina after subsidies were cut.
“Crypto is about access,” she said. “And access needs more than a legal framework. It needs a foundation.”
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Whether Latin America imports Washington’s crypto model or builds its own, the clock is ticking. What’s clear is that the region will have to strike its rhythm—syncing where necessary, improvising where possible, and refusing to let a foreign beat drown out its priorities.