Peru

Num Finance received $1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round in May and is now issuing stablecoins in the local currencies of Argentina, Peru and Colombia.

Argentina-based Num Finance has announced it has gone live with a n stablecoin pegged to the Colombian peso, the company announced Aug. 24 in an X post.

The stablecoin — called nCOP — is an overcollateralized, Polygon-based stablecoin and is aimed at the remittance market. 

Colombia receives over $6.5 billion a year in remittances, Num stated in a blog post. Remittances are one of the key use cases for stablecoin.

The nCOP incorporates the “Num yield feature,” which allows user rewards to be paid in nCOP. Num Finance CEO Agustín Liserra said:

“In Colombia, there exists a unique opportunity to ‘tokenize’ remittances and offer them a yield in nCOP, based on regulated financial products. Currently, Colombia is one of the main recipients of remittances in Latin America.”

This is the third stablecoin the company has produced — after the nARS pegged to the Argentinian peso and the nPEN pegged to the Peruvian sol.

Related: Colombia’s central bank recommends limiting CBDC holdings and spending

Num received $1.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Reserve protocol in May. It said at the time that over $2.5 million worth of nARS and nPEN were in circulation, and was looking at launching stablecoins pegged to the Brazilian real, Colombian peso and Mexican peso. 

The Colombian central bank is considering issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) — another potential vehicle for remittances — and has determined that it should place holding and transaction limits on a future CBDC to safeguard the local financial system.

Introducing nCOP, the new Num Stablecoin and the leading stablecoin for Colombia! pic.twitter.com/u16SOFqTl8

— Num Finance (@Num_Finance) August 24, 2023

Also on Aug. 24, it was disclosed that Mastercard will stop supporting Binance crypto debit cards in Latin American countries, including Colombia.

Magazine: The Invisible Man of the Visible World: How Blockchain Could Offer New Hope to Stateless Rohingya