What’s next for stablecoins? What we learned at the Mexico City 2025 Conference

Stablecoins are no longer an experiment: they’re expanding infrastructure. Growth over the next few years is expected to outpace the last two by a wide margin. That was the prevailing tone at the Stablecoin Conference 2025 in Mexico City. The debate made it clear the question is no longer “if,” but “how” and “for what”: how enterprise stablecoin payments integrate with banks and processors, and which use cases deliver the greatest return today.

The region’s role has also shifted. LATAM stablecoin adoption has moved from “target market” to protagonist: this is where the most urgent stablecoin use cases LATAM originate—remittances, cross-border commerce, global payroll with stablecoins, and hedging against devaluation—and integrations are being designed from and for the region. Countries like Brazil are setting the pace in adoption and pilots; Colombia is preparing bank-led trials often referenced as Colombia sandbox stablecoins; and El Salvador crypto payments illustrate comprehensive experimentation that attracts companies looking for more agile models. 

The practical takeaway: stablecoins don’t compete with traditional finance; they coexist as an ingredient in an increasingly hybrid payment rails architecture enabled by bank–blockchain integration.

Main insights from the Stablecoins Conference

The first signal is maturity: rather than “crypto” the conversation centered on different forms of money that coexist by country, use case, and risk profile—cash, bank deposits, e-money and stablecoins. The most sophisticated enterprises already think in terms of portfolios of instruments, choosing the most efficient option for each route and objective, especially as B2B payments move from pilots to production.

The second signal is hybridization: bank rails and on-chain rails operate side by side behind experiences that are becoming invisible to end users. What matters is 24/7 availability, reconciliation, and total cost, not the technical “how.” That invisibility is powered by stablecoin settlement options embedded in processors, liquidity routing that finds the best path across networks, and multichain interoperability that reduces vendor and network lock-in.

The third signal is mainstreaming: the presence of networks, issuers, and processors such as Visa, PayPal, Worldpay, Ripple, Circle, and Solana—alongside remittance and payments players like Remitly, Bridge, Kraken, and Blinday—confirms a strong B2B and treasury focus. As pilots scale, finance teams are drafting stablecoin treasury policies to govern wallets, limits, and workflows.

The fourth signal is regulatory momentum: LATAM is advancing while the market is being built. Pilots and sandboxes bring banks, fintechs, and authorities into a shared language around risks and controls, while global dialogues on stablecoin regulation continue to mature. At the same time, the classic pain points persist—distrust, misinformation, and fear. The antidote isn’t more jargon but solutions people understand: faster cross-border payments LATAM, remittances with stablecoins, global payroll with stablecoins and stable savings, paired with honest communication about carry risks.

What’s next for the fintech industry?

Here’s a roadmap for stablecoins in LATAM. This analysis outlines fintech industry trends in LATAM; it does not represent the roadmap of any specific provider.

Short term (next 6–12 months)

Expect hybrid payment rails running behind the scenes in apps, PSPs, and B2B platforms. Customers pay and get paid in local currency while settlement can toggle between bank and blockchain depending on speed and cost. Compliance by design (KYC/AML) stops being an add-on and becomes part of the architecture: list screening, monitoring, token-level freeze/reverse controls, wallet governance, and clear operating policies. 

Banks and processors will prioritize cross-border payments LATAM, supplier payouts, and collections with automated reconciliation and reporting that fits month-end close. Across the region, regulated pilots—many bank-led—will accelerate for pay-ins/pay-outs and treasury on-chain. 

For enterprises, the practical steps now are to select a partner with direct access to SPEI PIX integration and stablecoin liquidity, formalize an internal policy (limits, networks, authorizations), and begin measuring working capital optimization from pre-funding elimination.

Medium term (12–36 months)

Efficient on-chain FX will require more local-currency options: expect growth of MXN stablecoin, BRL stablecoin, COP stablecoin, and other regional units so payments and credit can be denominated domestically when it makes sense. Infrastructure will evolve toward native multichain interoperability with fast finality and intelligent liquidity routing, enabling consumer and treasury experiences with low latency and predictable costs.

Bank–blockchain integration will deepen as card networks and acquiring incorporate stablecoins as a settlement rail or operational collateral, trimming time and expense in Brazil PIX cross-border and Mexico SPEI cross-border corridors. On the regulatory front, expect convergence of best practices as stablecoin regulation frameworks in the U.S. and Europe permeate globally.

Long term (3–5+ years)

The conversation shifts to a portfolio of money types orchestrated by enterprises by use case and risk. Tokenized deposits and stablecoins with regulated financial features will emerge—ranging from liquidity parking to credit facilities—where rules permit. For end users, international payments will become indistinguishable from the underlying method: only availability, cost, and speed will matter. As banks and processors grow comfortable within the regulated perimeter, closing transactions with stablecoins will tend to become standard practice and could scale to trillions in annual value.

What’s holding things back and how do we fix it?

The first obstacle is skepticism. Many people and companies distrust what they don’t know or only hear polarized narratives about. The fix is to communicate in a results-driven language: prove a payment arrives in hours instead of days, that collections face less friction, or that a stable unit better protects operations in high-volatility FX markets.

The second obstacle is uneven regulation. The winning strategy is pragmatic: work in sandboxes and pilots with banks and authorities; operate with issuers and custodians that maintain clear reserves and audited security; and document KYC/AML and risk-management procedures that stand up to inspection, aligning with evolving stablecoin regulation.

The third obstacle is liquidity and network effects. The dollar and a handful of issuers dominate today; the next leap will require expanding local-currency options and improving liquidity routing—including interoperability across networks—so the system automatically selects the best path without compromising compliance or user experience.

ROI: The business case in plain numbers

You can estimate the return with a simple calculation. If a company processes $2,000,000 per month and maintains five days of pre-funding, the average trapped capital is roughly: monthly volume × (pre-funding days ÷ 30). In this example, 2,000,000 × (5/30) ≈ $333,333 immobilized. If the annual cost of capital is 12%, the monthly cost of that idle capital is 333,333 × (12% ÷ 12) ≈ $3,333.-

Add operational efficiencies: a 40-bp improvement in the FX spread on $2,000,000 yields an additional $8,000 in a month; replacing 50 international wires at $25 each saves $1,250 in fees. Altogether, the illustrative monthly saving is around $12,500. It’s not a contractual promise but a clear guide to where the return shows up: less immobilized capital, better exchange pricing, and lower friction across payment rails. The next step is to map routes that require pre-funding, migrate them to on-chain capture and settlement with local pay-outs, and measure the impact on the cash conversion cycle and total route cost.

Where does Bitso Business fit?

Bitso Business is the partner that lets you run this hybrid model without friction. Through a single API, it connects local pay-ins and pay-outs (SPEI in Mexico, PIX in Brazil) with on-chain FX, removes intermediaries, drives nostro/vostro reduction, and avoids pre-funding. It doesn’t aim to replace banks; it complements them with faster settlements, detailed reconciliation, and built-in compliance controls. For the use cases that move the needle in LATAM today—remittances with stablecoins, global payroll with stablecoins, cross-border commerce, and devaluation hedging—this combination delivers immediate, measurable improvement.

*NVIO Mexico enables direct access to SPEI and provides payment services in full compliance with Mexican regulations. NVIO Pagos México, S.A.P.I. de C.V., IFPE (“NVIO Mexico”), is an entity authorized and regulated by Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV). Learn more at nvio.mx/terms.