Circle, BIND open institutional USDC access in Argentina

Circle and Argentine financial group BIND have agreed to give eligible institutions in Argentina access to USDC through BEN, BIND’s digital assets platform. The partnership was announced on July 14 during Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire’s visit to Buenos Aires and is designed to provide corporations and financial intermediaries with a regulated route into dollar-denominated stablecoins in a market where the peso has lost 99.8% of its value against the USD since 2009. BIND operates as a registered virtual asset service provider, or PSAV (local virtual asset license), and BEN will support payments, treasury operations and other digital asset transactions on a peer-to-peer basis within a compliance-focused framework. Grupo BIND shareholder Andrés Meta said the platform aims to offer “transparent, secure, and efficient access to digital dollar infrastructure” while supporting regulatory compliance and operational integrity. The move broadens Circle’s Latin America push beyond Brazil, where it already has a team of eight people, with further expansion planned in Mexico and Colombia. Circle is also hiring a senior director in Buenos Aires and engaging with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Economy as it seeks to integrate stablecoins into the traditional financial system. The deal reflects how Argentina’s inflation, capital controls and distrust of the local currency have already driven retail stablecoin use, while regulated institutional access could unlock larger treasury, payments and cross-border flows. Circle’s strategy also positions USDC against Tether’s USDT, which has historically dominated Latin American usage, especially in peer-to-peer and informal markets, though Argentina’s shifting policy environment remains a risk.