Oobit, a crypto payments platform backed by Tether, has officially launched in Colombia, marking the company's ninth active market. The expansion deepens its Latin American footprint, following earlier entries into Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, and taps into a region where stablecoin adoption is already surging. Colombian users can now spend cryptocurrencies directly from non-custodial wallets at over 150 million merchants via a Visa-linked system, bypassing traditional banking rails.
Stablecoins are the primary driver of this move. USDT dominates Oobit's transaction volume across Latin America, while USDC ranks third after the platform's native token. Colombia presents fertile ground: Chainalysis data shows the Colombian peso is the second most-traded fiat pair for stablecoin purchases on centralized exchanges globally. Peso volatility and remittance flows have accelerated demand for digital dollars, making Colombia a strategic market for everyday crypto spending.
Oobit’s Brazil results offer a promising precedent. Since November 2024, user activity there has grown over 200%, with active users averaging $400 in monthly spending across nearly 20 transactions. Grocery stores and supermarkets account for 35% of payments, followed by restaurants, food shops, and retailers in fuel, beauty, electronics, and automotive sectors. The Colombia rollout comes as the total stablecoin supply has ballooned from roughly $243 billion to over $322 billion in the past year, per DefiLlama, signaling a broader shift from holding to spending digital assets.
