A freelancer in Buenos Aires takes her wages in a stablecoin before the peso slips again. An importer in São Paulo settles over a weekend, when the banks are shut. A street-food vendor in Caracas prices empanadas in bolívares but keeps his savings in digital dollars on his phone. A flower exporter in Bogotá pays its Ecuadorian fertilizer supplier in tokens as part of the standard monthly transfer.
Across Latin America, paying in digital dollars is no longer exotic. The everyday question was answered years ago: ordinary people already use them daily. The new debate, however, is whether their banks can keep up – and the region's own institutions just admitted they're struggling.
