Bitso Unveils Peso-Pegged Stablecoin on Ethereum Layer 2

Venture capital activity in the crypto space is showing steady resilience despite market fluctuations, with firms like Coinbase Ventures and Bitso doubling down on long-term strategies. While Coinbase Ventures remains focused on infrastructure, stablecoins, and real-world applications, Bitso is expanding its regional reach with the launch of a Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin aimed at improving cross-border payments. 

Bitso Launches Peso-Pegged Stablecoin on Arbitrum to Drive Financial Efficiency in Latin America

Bitso Business, the enterprise division of leading Mexican crypto exchange Bitso, has unveiled a new peso-pegged stablecoin, MXNB, to be issued on the Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum. 

According to a March 26 announcement, MXNB will be fully backed by Mexican pesos on a 1:1 basis and will be managed by Juno, a newly created subsidiary of Bitso. The firm promises regular independent audits of the reserves, with transparent attestation reports to be published publicly on the token’s dedicated website.

“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,” said Ben Reid, Head of Stablecoins at Bitso Business.

He emphasized that MXNB could offer a more efficient, faster, and lower-cost alternative to the traditional financial rails for businesses and investors seeking exposure to Latin America. 

The launch of MXNB comes at a time when Mexico’s remittance market is booming, and cryptocurrency is playing an increasingly vital role in enabling cross-border transfers. According to the World Bank, Mexico received a staggering $61 billion in remittances in 2023, largely from the United States, making it the second-largest recipient of remittances globally.

Crypto research firm Chainalysis noted in October that Mexico is one of the most critical markets for crypto-based remittances, citing high usage rates and growing infrastructure. From July 2023 to June 2024, Latin America received $415 billion in crypto transactions, a 42.5% increase year-over-year — the second-fastest growing region after sub-Saharan Africa.

In this context, MXNB could act as a liquidity bridge between the fiat peso and the global crypto economy, particularly in regions where financial services are expensive or limited. The use of Arbitrum, a high-throughput Ethereum Layer-2 network, is expected to reduce costs and latency compared to mainnet Ethereum or traditional remittance corridors.

While Bitso’s move is strategic, MXNB enters a growing but competitive space. Tether’s MXNT, launched in 2022 across Ethereum, Polygon, and Tron, already has a presence in the region. At the time, Tether’s CTO and now-CEO Paolo Ardoino called it a tool to protect Mexican users from inflation and facilitate a smoother fiat-to-crypto transition.

Other players include MMXN, backed by Monetary Digital, and MXNe, a stablecoin launched in 2024 by US-based Brale on the Solana and Stellar networks. Each stablecoin issuer has targeted niche use cases such as fintech applications, remittances, or DeFi integrations, indicating a maturing and diversifying Mexican crypto economy.

Despite the competition, Bitso’s advantage lies in its local dominance, boasting over 7 million users across Latin America, and its robust regional infrastructure that supports both retail and institutional users. The company’s recent Latin America Crypto Landscape report found that stablecoin purchases on Bitso surged by 9% in recent months, as users seek refuge from local fiat volatility by turning to USDC and USDT.

Building Trust Through Transparency

Juno, the entity managing MXNB, will operate independently of Bitso to ensure transparency and regulatory clarity. This governance structure aligns with best practices for stablecoin issuance globally, especially as scrutiny from financial watchdogs continues to intensify.

By offering public audits, Juno seeks to instill trust among both institutional and retail users wary of opaque backing practices, a concern that has plagued some stablecoin issuers in the past.

The launch of MXNB marks a pivotal moment for Mexico’s crypto ecosystem. As businesses in Latin America look for faster, cheaper, and more secure financial rails, Bitso’s stablecoin could serve as a linchpin connecting the digital economy with real-world fiat value.

The combination of fiat-backing, Arbitrum’s scalability, and Bitso’s market reach may position MXNB to become a cornerstone asset for cross-border commerce, remittances, and decentralized finance in Mexico and beyond.

With crypto-based remittances on the rise, and stablecoins emerging as reliable financial tools for inflation-hit economies, MXNB could prove to be more than just a new token — it could be the digital peso for the next generation of Latin American finance.

Coinbase Ventures Doubles Down on Crypto’s Future, Eyes 2025 as Banner Year for Blockchain VC

As crypto markets continue to experience cycles of volatility, venture capital appears unfazed, seeing turbulence not as a threat but as a filter that exposes true innovation. At the forefront of this resilient outlook is Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of the US-based crypto giant Coinbase, which remains steadfast in its commitment to backing the next wave of blockchain and Web3 builders.

In an interview, Hoolie Tejwani, head of Coinbase Ventures, outlined a long-term thesis that positions crypto not as a fleeting trend but as a foundational transformation — a technological evolution just entering its adolescence.

We’re “one decade into a 30-year paradigm shift,” Tejwani said. “What we’re seeing as investors is an exponential technology change curve that is transforming the way people interact, how value flows, and how economies are run. And it’s being shaped by the people who are building on crypto infrastructure.”

While some investment firms have pulled back due to market uncertainty, Coinbase Ventures is taking the opposite approach — investing steadily through all market conditions, with its eyes on the “big picture.

Its portfolio is already stacked with some of the most influential names in crypto, including Arbitrum, Dune, EigenLayer, Etherscan, OpenSea, Optimism, and Uniswap. These are not just token projects or trading platforms — they are infrastructure builders, data aggregators, and decentralized systems that are shaping the backbone of Web3.

A significant area of focus for Coinbase Ventures in 2025 is the rapid growth and normalization of stablecoins — particularly US dollar-pegged assets like USDC and USDT. Tejwani pointed to a shifting regulatory landscape in the US that could supercharge adoption.

The recent advancement of the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins), which cleared the Senate Banking Committee in an 18-6 vote, has been hailed as a milestone. If passed, the bill would bring much-needed clarity to stablecoin issuers and provide a regulatory framework that supports both innovation and compliance.

California Representative Ro Khanna recently revealed that at least 70 Democrats now support stablecoin legislation, a remarkable shift in sentiment that underscores the technology’s geopolitical significance. With the stablecoin market now exceeding $220 billion — or about 1.1% of the US M2 money supply — the stakes have never been higher.

Beyond stablecoins, Coinbase Ventures is honing in on next-generation decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, on-chain consumer applications (especially in social, gaming, and creator economies), and crypto-AI convergence as key areas of investment heading into 2025.

This thematic focus is shared by other major players in the space. Jeffrey Hu, head of research at HashKey Capital, also noted an increasing VC appetite for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) — both of which aim to bridge blockchain with the physical world.

What unites these efforts is a common belief that real-world utility and institutional involvement will drive the next bull market, not hype.

VC Capital Already on the Rise

Tejwani’s bullish outlook is echoed by recent funding data, which shows a surge of capital flowing back into the crypto space. Blockchain startups raised $1.1 billion in February alone, a sign that investor confidence is rebounding despite market headwinds.

Key sectors attracting VC capital include DeFi, business services, security infrastructure, and payment systems, according to analytics firm The TIE. These areas align closely with Coinbase Ventures’ investment thesis, which prioritizes infrastructure and utility over speculation.

Whether through enabling borderless payments, offering financial inclusion, or building decentralized digital economies, blockchain technology is being positioned as a generational shift — and Coinbase Ventures wants to be at the center of it.