LATAM market maturity grows amid heavy crypto activity

Cryptocurrency adoption across Latin America has reportedly surged over the past four years, with Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and Polygon in the driving seat of exchange activity. According to a report from analytics platform Dune published Tuesday, trading volumes through Latin America-based exchanges rose ninefold from 2021 to 2024, reaching $27 billion.

Per Dune Analytics’ records from July, dollar-backed USDT and USDC accounted for more than 90% of all exchange activity. At the same time, region-specific stablecoins showed remarkable momentum, with Brazilian real-pegged tokens treading north of 660% year-over-year, and Mexican peso-pegged tokens climbing 1,100 times compared to the previous year.

LATAM market maturity grows amid heavy crypto activity

Per Dune’s LATAM report, which studies trends from January 2021 to August 2025, local exchanges in the continent have witnessed transfer volumes expand by 800%, growing from just $3 billion in 2021 to $27 billion.

Dune mentioned that the inflection point came in 2023, when regional exchange activity more than quadrupled year-on-year. Bitso jumped from $2.5 billion in volume to $13.6 billion, while Lemon Cash nearly tripled its flows to $260 million. Exchanges moved towards the integration of crypto into payment systems, remittance corridors, and even corporate treasuries.

Peak liquidity in 2024, slow activity in 2025

At the start of 2024, LATAM exchanges’ liquidity reached record highs against the backdrop of a bear market, in which Bitcoin had dropped to levels of $39,000, only ending the month at a $43,000 high. Bitso’s annual volume climbed to $25.2 billion, Mercado Bitcoin tripled its flows to $915 million, and Lemon Cash expanded to $870 million.

The surge gave the sentiment of markets walking away from speculative trading and towards real-world utility like cross-border commerce, remittance settlements, and currency hedging.

Still, activity slowed at the start of 2025. January registered one of the weakest months in the four-year period. However, volumes steadily recovered; by July, they had reached the highest levels since September 2024.

Bitso processed $11 billion in flows between January and July, a slower pace than in 2024 but several times larger than any pre-2023 figure. Mercado Bitcoin recorded $990 million during the same period, while Lemon Cash handled $890 million in just over half a year, putting it on track to match its record from the previous year.

Between January 2021 and July 2025, Ethereum-based transfers accounted for over $45.5 billion in volume, nearly three-quarters of all tracked flows. Tron came in second with $12.5 billion, fueled by its low-cost transactions that made it the preferred network for USDT transfers. 

Solana took third place with $1.45 billion in total flows, slightly ahead of Polygon’s $1.17 billion. Polygon’s share has grown significantly in 2025, reaching 7.2% of monthly volumes in July, edging past Solana’s 7.1%.

BNB Chain followed with $963 million in total activity, while smaller networks Base and Arbitrum recorded $23.6 and $11.2 million, respectively. Arbitrum, meanwhile, matched its entire 2024 total of $11.2 million by July of this year.

Stablecoins were the undisputed driver of Latin America’s crypto activity. In July 2025, USDT and USDC accounted for nearly 90% of all transactions on regional exchanges.

From January 2021 through July 2025, USDT processed $32.4 billion in transfers, almost double the $18.36 billion recorded by USDC. ETH is the third-most traded asset overall, with $4.74 billion in volume since 2021. SOL ranks fourth with about 1% of activity and totaling $660 million in flows.

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