Stablecoin Conference · · 26 min
How Minteo Put Colombia's Peso Onchain and Built a Two-Sided FX Market
With William Durán
Key takeaways
Minteo processed about $1.2 billion in onchain volume over the last twelve months, up from roughly $50,000 a month when COPM launched about three years ago.
Durán argues AUM is the wrong way to measure a local stablecoin, and says ecosystem adoption and payments turnover matter more.
He says Colombia has no crypto regulation yet and predicts rules will come, possibly after the upcoming election, unblocking institutional volume.
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Summary
Co-founder William Durán says the next step for COPM is two-sided onchain FX and institutional money, which he expects regulation to unlock.
Minteo processed roughly $1.2 billion in onchain volume over the last twelve months, co-founder William Durán said on Stabledash Live. The volume runs through COPM, the Colombian peso stablecoin Minteo launched about three years ago and which Durán calls the leading stablecoin in Colombia.
From $50,000 a month
When Minteo started, Durán says, it was doing maybe $50,000 a month in volume with AUM of about 200k. He says the company is now getting into a rhythm of $20M to $50M+ months, and that AUM has also grown, though not to the same extent, to roughly 10x what it was two years ago.
Durán says AUM is not really the right lens for a local stablecoin, the way it might be for dollar stablecoins. In his view, adoption across the ecosystem and payments turnover matter more.
“To me, it's always been, like, giving the pesos, like, superpowers. Right? It's like, okay. Now you can move faster. You can you literally access via, like, API.”
The local winner
According to Durán, large distribution players such as Tempo, Tether USDt issuer Tether and Circle look for the local winner in each country. In Brazil they talk to BRLA or Avenia, he says, and in Colombia they come to Minteo. He pointed to Stripe's purchase of Bridge as an example of big companies staying quiet until they make a large move.
Building two-sided FX
Minteo holds accounts with about one third of Colombian banks, which Durán says lets it disperse fast business payments. He says there are not enough good LatAm-focused market makers willing to hold local currency, so Minteo's market makers are Colombian companies that already have pesos and simply tokenize them. The aim, he says, is to move everything on chain so firms that need dollars and firms that need pesos meet in a two-sided marketplace.
Waiting on regulation
Durán says traditional finance players cite the lack of regulation and mandates not to touch crypto as reasons they hold back. Colombia has no crypto regulation, he says: digital assets are not really classified but are not illegal. He cites the US GENIUS Act as the kind of catalyst needed, and says Brazil issuing digital asset licenses since November 2025 will speed things up. He expects Colombia to get regulation and says a win by the right-wing candidate in the upcoming election could bring early pro-crypto announcements.
Durán describes tokenization as giving the peso superpowers: faster movement and access via API. With volume growing and bank rails in place, he says regulation is what will unblock institutional usage, which he says is where a lot of the volume is.
Agora, Bridge, Stripe, and Avenia come up most.
- People
- William Durán
- Companies
- Agora
- Bridge
- Stripe
- Avenia
- Bitso
- Circle
- Hopnow
- Tempo
- Tether
- Minteo
- BRLA
- Dfns
