This week: 1) an update on bridge21, 2) MX peso and 3) Crypto rate forecasts
By: Will Madden
Tags: Payments, Fintech, Bitcoin, Mexico, Cryptocurrency

This week: 1) an update on bridge21, 2) MX peso and 3) Crypto rate forecasts

A quick update on bridge21’s growth and plans

For those who do not know, bridge21 is a cross-border payments company that helps individuals and businesses send money from the US to Mexico.

What makes us different is that we use cryptocurrencies to convert US Dollars to MX Pesos behind the scenes (we do not exchange them directly with customers at this time). We’re the first company in the world to offer a US to Mexico payment service exclusively powered by cryptocurrencies.

Using cryptocurrencies grants us several advantages. Bypassing correspondent banks allows us to offer competitive exchange rates, but it also allows us to pay out locally in Mexico using the free and fast SPEI network, which is a big advantage for customers who make many payments to Mexico.

We started in 2017 by targeting individual customers, but as our business grew and trust in our services increased, businesses became a larger part of our growth. Now, after four plus years, we’re getting close to being revenue positive.

Our plan is to raise money and expand our services. Here is what we have planned in order:

Immediate expansion plans

1) Add full support for US domestic wires and build US Dollar and MX Peso balances in your bridge21 account. This will allow for much faster payouts to Mexico because funds will have already settled.

2) Offer Mexico to US payout service (the other direction).

3) Add more countries (customers ask about other countries regularly).

Longer-term expansion plans

4) Build cryptocurrency balances into your bridge21 account, allowing you to convert some or all of your national currency balances into cryptocurrencies and withdraw/deposit them as well, allowing individuals and businesses to manage their money and payments directly on the bridge21 platform.

As interest in cryptocurrency increases, fees and costs will approach zero. Eventually many governments will permit stable coins as a proxy for their national currencies and modernize their payment networks. This is still years away, but when it happens, moving money across borders will become very fast and cheap. We want to be ready for this change in advance.

It may seem as if we are aiming to become a cryptocurrency exchange; we’re not. We’re aiming to build a network of existing exchanges in different countries, making it fast and inexpensive to move money on and off this network.

While exchanges allow customers to speculate on cryptocurrency prices, we want to focus on the utility of making payments and enabling international commerce. In the long run, we believe this is what matters most.

The first step is to reach profitability so we can raise money on reasonable terms. A few dozen more individual customers, or one or two more business clients is all it will take for us to reach profitability. If you want to help us achieve this goal, please tell a friend about bridge21.com!

Short-term USD:MXN forecast

The USD:MXN rate crept above 20:1 but then dropped back to 19.8:1 levels on Friday.

Our short-term outlook is still neutral to mildly bullish for the USD:MXN exchange rate over the next week or two.

Bitcoin trades in a range between 32k and 36k, with alt coins outperforming Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was rangebound last week, with Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and other alternative cryptocurrencies outperforming Bitcoin overall.

So far, we’re still holding above 32k USD levels. We think the chances of a crash below these levels exceeds the likelihood of higher prices, given that the primary trend of the bull market broke down back in May.

Longer-term USD:MXN rate forecast

Our long-term forecast is still higher for the USD:MXN exchange rate through 2021.

Best regards,

Will — bridge21.com

The content in this update is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any information or other material in this update as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. While we took care to share correct information from reputable sources, bridge21 cannot guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information.