Argentine Fintech Uala Launches Bitcoin, Ether Trading Feature

The service will be available to 4.5 million users in the South American country in the coming weeks.

AccessTimeIconNov 4, 2022 at 3:32 p.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 4:01 a.m. UTC

Uala, an Argentina-based fintech company, has enabled bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) trading for its customers in that country.

At first, the new service will be available to a few thousand users, Andres Rodriguez Ledermann, vice president of Wealth Management at Uala, told CoinDesk, but it will be rolled out to all of the company’s 4.5 million Argentine customers in coming weeks.

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  • The platform only allows for purchases and sales of the cryptos – withdrawals are not available. The minimum transaction size is 250 pesos ($0.83).

    Rodriguez Ledermann did not rule out the company offering crypto trading in Mexico and Colombia, where it also operates, but added that there are regulatory matters that need to be studied.

    Uala is the first financial player to launch crypto trading in Argentina since the local central bank in May barred two banks from allowing its customers access to cryptocurrencies.

    In order to comply with current regulations in Argentina, said Rodriguez Ledermann, Uala created a special company to provide its crypto service – Uanex, which is based in England and has the Latin American crypto company Bitso as its crypto liquidity provider.

    In August, Uala raised a $350 million Series D funding round co-led by SoftBank and Tencent’ affiliates. The investment gave the company a post-money valuation of $2.45 billion.

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    Andrés Engler

    Andrés Engler was a CoinDesk editor based in Argentina, where he covers the Latin American crypto ecosystem. He holds BTC and ETH.