we talk with Raúl Badillo (also known as Bairo), country manager of FTX in Mexico, upon Bitcoin, the cryptocurrencies, the decentralized finance and the potential in Latin American region.
Fernando Quirós (FQ): Do you think 2021 is a good year for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?
Raúl Badillo (RB): I believe that every year can be a good year for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, regardless of whether we are in a bull market or a bear market, as long as our measure to evaluate the success of the industry is not only focused on the increase or not of the prices of assets, but in the ability to observe the reception of the ecosystem by government institutions, the important players of private initiative and, in my opinion, the most transcendental point, the genuine interest of people to open up to cryptos without the fear that we saw a few years ago. In fact, it has been this social momentum that has been changing the rules of the game, and so in the end we see public and private agents putting the issue on the table.
FQ: What potential do you see for cryptocurrencies?
RB: I definitely believe that DeFi has come to change the financial ecosystem for the better, and I believe that the Latin American scenario is a very fertile field to make this part of our future normality. Also, I believe that there is infinite potential not only in crypto issues, but also in blockchain technology itself.
Personally, as someone who likes the subject of government, I would like to see each time an opening by public administrations to the implementation of mechanisms and instruments blockchain to make public work more effective, transparent and safe.
I would love to see that all the procedures or deals that can be made of a public or private nature can be done so naturally with crypto because of the facilities and benefits they offer.
FQ: Mexico has set a precedent with its “Fintech Law”. What could you tell us about it?
RB: Mexico wanted to take the lead a few years ago with the implementation of the Law Fintech And we must ask ourselves if it has managed to become that Fintech Innovation Hub – which includes the crypto industry – that it sought to be.
I like that the initiative has been taken from Mexico to pay as the first on the subject in the entire Latin American territory, but we cannot deny that today, in 2021, more countries have left the continent stepping very hard for the benefit of the ecosystem, such as The Savior, Argentina and Colombia, to name a few. This is not necessarily bad for Mexico, but on the contrary, it encourages both competition and cooperation between the sister countries of Latin America to make this industry something even bigger.
FQ: What services does FTX offer in Mexico?
RB: Mexicans, like many Latin Americans, can access the FTX.com platform without any problem, and after funding via blockchain, they can operate cryptocurrencies and tokens, upload and trade NFTs, build trading algorithms in the Quant Zone, access competitions, as well as staking services, among others.
On the other hand, as an operation in Mexico we have been updating ourselves for the moment on legal issues, seeing the possibility of integrating the peso into the platform, and making friends with institutions and people in the industry, which, for example, can watch “Intercambio”, our FTX Spanish podcast, where Spanish-speaking initiatives are promoted.
FQ: Do you have any plans for the near future in the region?
RB: Definitely. I think that FTX is well known for its commitment to being a key sponsor in various environments, not necessarily linked to crypto, precisely to achieve penetration and familiarization of the brand with people; so we are open to see and study possibilities of collaboration with third parties not only in Mexico, but in Latin America.
It should also be noted that many people from other countries ask us to integrate their national currencies to the platform, an issue that definitely shows an interest on the part of the continent in FTX, and in that sense, we are also evaluating these possibilities in the future.
FQ: What do you think of central bank digital currencies?
RB: I just had a conversation about CBDCs in an episode of our podcast, and I honestly believe that we will see in the future a possible coexistence between privately-sourced stablecoins and central bank digital currencies. We will have to see how the theme develops and how it affects the dynamics we are used to as users in the end.
FQ: Some say that with new technologies and decentralization, Bitcoin makes banks unnecessary intermediaries. What do you think about this?
RB: I believe that blockchain technology has had a disruptive effect on the way we look at finance, so I am sure that today’s financial service will change as technology becomes more user-friendly. In addition to this, on a personal basis, I do not see banks as enemies, but as entities that have in themselves a very large responsibility of direct and indirect incidence in the crypto sector that can also be for the better.
Likewise, I observe that the dynamics of the industry is leading us to see a potential convergence between both worlds, that even, perhaps the first receivers of Bitcoin would not have imagined.
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