The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2014–2024
Bitso bets crypto becomes everyday LatAm finance: first crypto unicorn, 9M users
Founded in 2014, Bitso bet Mexicans would buy fractions of bitcoin; it became LatAm's first crypto unicorn in 2021 and reached 9M users by 2024.
Bitso
What the business is
A Mexico City crypto exchange letting LatAm users buy fractions of bitcoin and other assets with small minimums, plus payments, remittance and savings products.
Starting capital：US$316.4M raised through the May 2021 Series C, which valued Bitso at $2.2B.
How it started
Daniel Vogel co-founded Bitso in Mexico City in 2014, betting crypto adoption would start in emerging markets underserved by banking; by early 2021 it had 2M customers and had just launched in Brazil, with operations in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia.
What happened
A $62M Series B (December 2020) was followed by a $250M Series C led by Tiger Global and Coatue in May 2021, valuing Bitso at $2.2B — Latin America's first crypto unicorn. It doubled customers to 6M+ by October 2022, but cut 80 staff in May 2022 as the crypto winter hit, with a further smaller round of cuts in November.
How it ended up
Still scaling: 9M users by December 2024, ~10% of US–Mexico remittances projected through the platform that year, plus QR payments in Argentina, a Mastercard-linked crypto card in Mexico and Bitso+ yield products.
Background
Bitso is a Mexico City cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2014 by Daniel Vogel, built on the bet that Latin America — where large parts of the population lack full banking access — would adopt crypto as everyday finance rather than as niche speculation. Its product let users buy fractions of bitcoin for as little as ~US$2.50, then added remittance, payments and savings features.
The bet caught the 2020–2021 bull market: a $62M Series B in December 2020 was followed by a $250M Series C led by Tiger Global and Coatue in May 2021 that valued the company at $2.2B, making Bitso the first crypto unicorn in Latin America. By then it had 2M customers and had just launched in Brazil, expanding across Mexico, Argentina and Colombia.
When the crypto winter arrived in 2022, Bitso cut 80 staff in May and took another, smaller round of cuts later in the year — but it also doubled its customer base to 6M by October and kept building products like QR payments in Argentina and a Mastercard-linked card in Mexico.
Bitso closed 2024 with 9M users across three markets, retail transactions up 80.6% year over year, and projected roughly 10% of US–Mexico remittances flowing through its rails. The exchange that began as a bet that Mexicans would buy tiny amounts of bitcoin became the region's default crypto on-ramp.
What has to be true
- Emerging markets with weak banking access adopt new financial rails faster than developed ones, so the exchange was built where adoption would happen first.
- A low $2.50 minimum removed the barrier for first-time crypto buyers, turning a speculative asset into an everyday purchase.
- A regulation-first strategy (Mexico's first IFPE license, won in 2020) differentiated Bitso from unregulated rivals as users and regulators demanded trust.
- Surviving the 2022 crypto winter through layoffs and product building let Bitso keep leadership while smaller regional exchanges disappeared.
What can be applied
Betting early on an unproven asset in an emerging market can create a category leader, but the bet must survive the asset's boom-bust cycle; cost discipline in the winter decides who keeps the lead.
Aftermath
As of 2024-12-10, Bitso reported 9M users across Mexico, Argentina and Colombia — 70% in Mexico — with retail transaction volume up 80.6% year over year. It had expanded from a simple exchange into remittances (projecting ~10% of the US–Mexico corridor for 2024), QR payments in Argentina, a Mastercard crypto card in Mexico and Bitso+ savings yields. It held Mexico's first IFPE payment-funds license, won in 2020, and cited regulation as a moat. The 2022 crypto winter cost it 80 jobs, but the company used the downturn to double users to 6M and kept building products rather than shrinking.
Sources
- Tiger Global, Coatue Lead Bitso's $250M Series C As Company Gains Unicorn Status
- Bitso says it doubled its Latin America customer base in the past year
- Bitso cierra el 2024 con 9 millones de usuarios
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