Bitso

Bitso is a privately held financial technology company founded in Mexico in January 2014. It began as a bitcoin exchange and now runs two businesses: a consumer app for buying, selling, holding and earning on crypto in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, and Bitso Business, which sells cross-border payments, local pay-ins and payouts, foreign exchange, OTC trading and stablecoin services to companies.

Daniel Vogel was co-founder and chief executive when Bitso received its Gibraltar licence in 2019, according to the Gibraltar government's announcement; Pablo González spoke for the company as board president in 2018. In May 2021 Bitso raised a $250 million Series C at a $2.2 billion valuation, co-led by Tiger Global and Coatue, according to TechCrunch. In April 2026, marking its twelfth anniversary, the company said it had more than 10 million customers and more than 1,900 corporate clients, and claimed it handles 10% of remittances between the US and Mexico. Those are company figures without outside verification.

Bitso splits crypto and local money between different legal entities, and the licence that covers you depends on which leg of a transaction you are on. Its legal page and safety page set out the arrangement.

• Crypto trading and custody: Bitso International, the trade name of The Badger Technology Company Limited, a Gibraltar company (no. 117775) licensed by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission as a DLT provider, licence FSC1348B. Bitso's fee page says its trading fees apply to Bitso International's exchange services.
• Mexico: Nvio Pagos México, S.A.P.I. de C.V., an electronic payment institution under the Fintech Law (licence P022/2020), handles peso deposits and withdrawals.
• Argentina: The Badger Technology Company Argentina SAU is registered with the Comisión Nacional de Valores as a virtual asset service provider (no. 164); peso operations run through Nvio Pagos Argentina SAS, regulated by the Central Bank of Argentina as a payment service provider.
• Brazil: Nvio Brasil Instituição de Pagamento Ltda., a payment institution regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil, handles reais.
• Colombia: Nvio Pagos Colombia operates peso transfers through Banco de Bogotá inside the financial superintendency's regulatory sandbox.

Bitso's Gibraltar licence is outside the EU and does not amount to MiCA authorization. Its site states that products are not guaranteed or insured by any government or public authority, and its Earnings terms say balances used to earn rewards are not covered by any insurance or compensation scheme.

Bitso uses a maker-taker schedule that falls with 30-day trading volume. The rates below are for markets quoted in Mexican pesos; Bitso publishes separate tables for markets in USDC, USDT, USDS, BTC, Argentine pesos, Colombian pesos and Brazilian reais.

In Mexico, deposits by SPEI bank transfer and withdrawals by SPEI, debit card transfer, mobile phone transfer or Bitso Transfer between users are free, according to Bitso's deposits and withdrawals page. Crypto withdrawals carry network fees that vary by asset. The trade-off is clear: getting pesos in and out costs nothing, while a small buy at the first tier costs several times what offshore exchanges charge. Our breakdown of what a $10,000 trade really costs shows how fees and spread add up.

Bitso's retail app is built for Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, with local currency rails in each. The Gibraltar terms list 35 prohibited jurisdictions whose residents and citizens cannot open accounts, among them the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Hong Kong, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea and several Balkan countries. Bitso says it may also refuse registrations from other countries it deems high risk.

Accounts require identity verification. US companies can work with Bitso Business, whose site lists the US among its markets, but that is a business service with its own onboarding, not a retail account. For the wider picture, see how to choose a crypto exchange. For how Bitso stacks up on custody, fees and coverage, see how Bitso compared with other exchanges.

Bitso is custodial, so it holds the keys to customers' crypto. Its safety page says it holds an insurance-backed guarantee from Coincover that protects almost all of its digital assets if Bitso's own wallets are compromised, that it is audited by a third party under GFSC principles, and that it runs a bug bounty program on Bugcrowd and an in-house threat research team called Quetzal. Bitso does not publish the Coincover policy limits or the audit reports on that page. The guarantee covers a wallet compromise; it is not a deposit guarantee if the company fails. Our explainer on what exchange insurance actually covers goes into the difference.

The only security incident we found in the public record is from July 2018, when Bitso confirmed a cyberattack and temporarily disabled crypto deposits and withdrawals; it said user funds were safe and gave no loss figure. We found no enforcement action against Bitso by a regulator.

A large share of Bitso's activity comes from companies. Bitso Business offers a multi-currency account with access to SWIFT, SEPA, Pix and SPEI, mass payouts, stablecoin orchestration, OTC trading and an API. It also promotes two local-currency stablecoins: MXNB, a token backed 1:1 by Mexican pesos and issued by Juno, a Bitso company, which can be minted via SPEI and redeemed to pesos. Its product list also includes BRL1.

Bitso runs an annual Stablecoin Conference LATAM. The 2025 edition drew more than 1,800 attendees from 45 countries, according to coverage of the company's anniversary. Bitso also publishes regular reports on crypto adoption in Latin America.

Bitso accounts are opened in the Bitso app or at bitso.com with identity verification. In Mexico, pesos arrive by SPEI from a bank account in the user's name, and can be withdrawn the same way or to a debit card. Crypto can be sent to an external wallet on the networks Bitso lists for each asset; checking the network on both sides before sending avoids most lost-funds cases.

Support runs through the help center at support.bitso.com, which hosts articles and a ticket form. The site footer carries a system status indicator. Bitso's official social accounts are the ones linked from its own site: X (@bitso), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube; anyone contacting you from another account is not Bitso.

Dated milestones from Bitso, regulators and press coverage.

• January 2014: Bitso founded in Mexico.
• July 2018: cyberattack confirmed; crypto deposits and withdrawals temporarily disabled.
• October 2019: Gibraltar Financial Services Commission grants a DLT licence, the first for a Latin American firm.
• January 2020: Nvio Pagos México's electronic payment institution licence published in Mexico's Official Gazette.
• 2020 to 2022: expansion into Argentina (2020), Brazil (2021) and Colombia (2022).
• May 2021: $250 million Series C at a $2.2 billion valuation.
• October 2025: launch of a stocks product.
• April 2026: twelfth anniversary; more than 10 million customers, by its own count.