Tether Leads Pre-Seed Funding in Bolivian Fintech Peso for LatAm Payments

Stablecoin issuer Tether announced on Oct. 21 that it led a pre-seed funding round in Peso, a Bolivian fintech startup building digital dollar infrastructure across Latin America ¹. Peso operates a global account designed for $USDT, allowing consumers to save, spend, and execute cross-border transfers within a single application ¹. The investment aims to expand stablecoin use cases into everyday retail, food delivery, ride-hailing, e-commerce, and banking rails ¹. At the time of writing, USDT held a flat 24-hour rate at $0.9991 against a total crypto market cap of $2.76 trillion.

Peso provides virtual accounts issued in the customer's legal name, connecting Tether's stablecoin to Bolivia's banking rails through local ACH and QR clearing systems ¹. In consumer integrations, Peso has embedded USDT settlement into Yango, a platform in Bolivia where customers can pay for food delivery orders directly in stablecoins ¹. The fresh capital will back Peso's rollout of merchant point-of-sale infrastructure and regional on- and off-ramps in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina ¹. Peso Chief Executive Officer Alejandro Terán noted that while regional consumers already store value in digital dollars, the missing component was everyday spending rails ¹.

Deepening Latin American Rails

The funding aligns with a broader industry push to integrate stablecoin rails into developing economies where informal labor and banking friction are prevalent. On Oct. 20, credit platform Tala partnered with regional wallet El Dorado to disburse and settle uncollateralized consumer loans directly in USDT on the Tempo blockchain, launching first in Bolivia ². According to the Autoridad de Supervisión del Sistema Financiero (ASFI), consumer loans make up just 10% of total bank lending in Bolivia, while the International Labour Organization calculates that more than 8 in 10 Bolivian workers operate informally ².

Tether's backing of Peso follows external corporate initiatives, such as when Tether leads $15 million Series A funding for AI payment startup Mural and its efforts to deepen financial networks globally ¹. Tether Chief Executive Officer Paolo Ardoino stated the objective is to position stablecoins as standard payment channels rather than passive stores of value ¹. Neither party disclosed the precise dollar amount of the pre-seed round ¹.