Ripple launches crypto-based Whatsapp remittance between Mexico and U.S.

• Ripple ODL client Bitso has partnered with Felix Pago to launch crypto-based Whatsapp remittance between the U.S. and Mexico.
• Bitso and Felix Pago plan to expand to other Latin American countries.

Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) is gaining more traction in the Latin American cross-border settlement corridor. Ripple partner and Latin America’s largest cryptocurrency platform, Bitso, has joined forces with remittance provider Felix Pago to enable WhatsApp-based crypto-powered payments between the U.S. and Mexico.

News outlet CrownFund Insider first reported the partnership, adding that the long-term objective of Bitso and Felix Pago’s arrangement is to extend to other countries in Latin America including Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina in which Bitso already has a significant presence.

The Mexico remittance corridor is one of the biggest in the Latin American region. In 2021, Mexico received an estimated $51.6 billion in remittances in 2021, which accounts for 40.4% of all Latin American remittances. The region also received a record $127.6 billion in remittances during the year, a year-over-year growth of 26 perc

Felix Pago is a provider of “chat remittance technology.” Its payments service launched earlier in 2022, works over WhatsApp. It allows users to perform transactions over the instant messenger platform as easily as sending a text message with settlement in real time.

With the partnership, Bitso will operate as a backend crypto provider allowing users to seamlessly send U.S. dollars which are received as Pesos while not having to navigate complex crypto infrastructure. Bernardo García, co-founder of Félix Pago, said the company is excited to partner with Bitso to provide this “essential service” for Mexican families.

“We have chosen Bitso to facilitate these payments due to its reputation and experience as a transparent and regulated company that successfully makes cross-border payments with crypto for millions of users,” he said.

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For his part, Carlos Lovera, Bitso’s Business Development Leader, added that the partnership will promote remittances that are extremely easy, cheap, and fast to send while showing that crypto is capable of solving real problems and bringing direct benefits to people.

XRP to benefit in the long term from ODL service adoption

The Bitso and Felix Pago partnership is not the only recent expansion that Ripple’s ODL service has recorded. ODL, which utilizes XRP, has been onboarding more remittance markets, as well as servicing retail payments from small and medium-sized enterprises and merchants.

The year has seen ODL enter remittance markets such as Australia, and Brazil, and also expand in the U.A.E., and Africa. Ripple reports having a presence in 90% of all remittance corridors in 2022.

Meanwhile, the price of XRP has continued to be suppressed in part by the crypto bear market and also due to the SEC case against the company. In the last 24 hours, XRP has been changing hands at $0.38, down 1.25%.