Why a Crypto Neobank Went Brick-and-Mortar in Bolivia

A physical office in Santa Cruz

According to Guillermo Goncalvez, the El Dorado office was previously used by BCP Bank, which he called one of Bolivia's biggest banks. He says the company, a new player, is ranked among the top five financial applications in the country. He added that El Dorado is starting to plan other openings next year, which the signal places in 2027.

Trade with China

Guillermo Goncalvez says China is the number one partner of almost every Latin American country except Mexico. He is also optimistic that electric vehicle adoption will become a trend that matters at a macro level in the region.

Microcredit in an informal market

Guillermo Goncalvez describes Bolivia as the most informal market in South America, saying informality makes up to 80 to 90% of the economy and consumer credit is about 5% of GDP. He says Bolivia introduced real-time payments about five years ago, similar to Brazil's approach, and that up to 80 to 90% of the population uses those systems.

El Dorado will launch its own microcredit system in Bolivia with Altala and Tempo. Users will be able to request $100 or $200 Tether USDt loans in the app, and the company will use Thales financial intelligence and data sourcing to build a credit score.

Dollars and stablecoins

Guillermo Goncalvez calls the US dollar the single best financial product ever created. He says stablecoins are mostly useful for cross-border payments, something he says was not obvious four or five years ago. El Dorado works with Augustus, a stablecoin-native bank, for correspondent banking in the US and SWIFT transfers. He also cited WAP as a model for offering the full stack of ecommerce and payment tools.