Latin America Stablecoin Liquidity Relies on Small Group of Firms

Latin America's stablecoin market faces a potential bottleneck due to a concentration of wholesale liquidity, corporate treasury, and credit services. While the region hosts 494 companies in the stablecoin space, only 16 firms focus on these critical back-end functions.

The findings, published in early October 2026, draw on data from the Stablescape database. The research highlights a significant imbalance between consumer-facing platforms, such as wallets and payment apps, and the infrastructure providers that facilitate large-scale fiat conversions.

Amit Chu, a partner at Verda Ventures, noted that while many companies appear independent, they often rely on the same small group of trading desks and exchanges to manage currency risk. This structure means that a failure at a single major provider could disrupt operations, leading to slower cash-outs and wider spreads.

Stablecoins have seen widespread adoption across the region for savings, payments, and cross-border transfers, driven by volatility in local currencies. Annual transaction volumes have reached into the hundreds of billions, with business-to-business payments accounting for a large portion of this activity.

Despite the speed of blockchain transactions, the process of moving funds between traditional bank accounts and stablecoins remains dependent on these scarce liquidity desks. This creates a practical concern for businesses using stablecoins for payroll or supplier settlements, as they may be exposed to the same counterparty risk through multiple platforms.

For investors, the report points to an underbuilt market segment where system dependencies are concentrated. Future updates to the Stablescape data will be monitored to see if the number of firms in this wholesale layer increases, which would indicate that infrastructure is scaling alongside adoption.