Gemini Joins Colombia's Largest Bank for Cryptocurrency Trading

This partnership will allow Bancolombia consumers to trade some of the most popular cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and LTC.

New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has announced that it will expand into Latin America through a future partnership with Colombia's largest bank, Bancolombia.

The partnership will take effect on December 14 and Bancolombia customers will be able to trade 4 crypto assets. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Money (BCH).

Few users can buy cryptocurrency directly from their bank in Bancolombia through Gemini Exchange, which provides a cryptocurrency platform for trading and storage. It is not yet clear whether users will be able to directly withdraw the cryptocurrencies they hold from their funds.

Gemini said in a joint statement on December 6 that it was "an important step in Gemini's expansion into Latin America."

"I believe that cryptocurrencies can play a vital role in the development of Latin America, as interest in blockchain and new technologies has increased across the region."

This partnership will be part of an annual trial by the Colombia Financial Supervisory Authority (SFC). In September 2020, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit approved the management of the "la Arenara" sandbox.

SFC announced in January that it had selected nine companies, including Gemini, Binance and the Mexican exchange Bitso, from the 14 cryptocurrency exchanges that applied for the project.

After El Salvador received BTC as a beneficiary on September 7, Latin America took a step toward the importance of using cryptocurrency. In October, JP Thieriot, CEO of multi-currency investment platform Uphold, told Cointelegraph that Latin America "will be the biggest beneficiary of cryptocurrencies."

Gemini currently operates in more than 60 Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.

Bancolombia has operations in Colombia, Panama, Guatemala and El Salvador. According to an internal report last year, it had 17.8 million users.

In March of this year, Colombia's oldest bank, Banco de Bogotá, also announced that it would attempt to integrate the crypto service into the Arenara. A year ago, in March 2020, Cointelegraph announced that Latin America was the third largest region of cryptocurrency users in the world.