Tether plants its flag in Latin America, buys Parfin

Tether is pushing into Latin America with the acquisition of the regional digital asset custody platform, Parfin.

Tether is betting big on Latin America as one of the fastest-growing global crypto hubs. On Thursday, November 20, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer acquired Parfin, a London- and Rio de Janeiro-based firm specializing in custody, tokenization, and settlement.

According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, Parfin — a Mastercard-incubated startup — will help the firm bridge traditional finance and blockchain tech. He added that the investment also reflects the company’s belief that Latin America is a major crypto powerhouse.

“At Tether, we believe in global, unrestricted access to financial freedom and real-world digital asset use cases,” said Paolo Ardoino, Tether. “Parfin has shown a strong commitment to bridging this gap,” he added.

Parfin is deeply integrated with Latin America’s financial institutions, offering custody, tokenization, trading, and asset management solutions to institutional clients. Notably, this also puts it in a position to help Tether boost USDT adoption among institutional clients.

Tether’s investment is a strong validation of our vision to accelerate the integration of tokenization applications and USDT into our institutional-grade blockchain and digital assets solutions,” said Marcos Viriato, CEO of Parfin.

Tether bets big on Latin America

Latin America recorded almost $1.5 trillion in transaction volume by October this year, according to Chainalysis. This makes it one of the regions with the most active crypto markets. Institutions were a major driver of this growth.

Crypto users in the region rely on stablecoins for cheaper cross-border transactions, most often used in remittances. For others, crypto assets are an important tool to reduce risks.

More about Parfin

Last year, Parfin pulled in $10 million in the first tranche of its Series A round led by ParaFi Capital with backing from Framework Ventures, L4 Venture Builder and Núclea.

Founded in 2019, Parfin wants to be the relationship therapist between tradfi and defi, offering banks the privacy, security and compliance they demand while slipping them the efficiency perks of blockchain.

Parfin joined Mastercard’s Start Path program last year and counts Banco BV, Núclea and B3 Digitas among its clients. Its Rayls platform is taking part in Brazil’s central bank program exploring privacy and scalability for a CBDC.