Stablecoin Issuer Tether to Make USDT Available at 24,000 ATMs in Brazil

This article is adapted from CoinDesk Brasil, a partnership between CoinDesk and InfoMoney, one of Brazil's leading financial news publications. Follow CoinDesk Brasil on Twitter.

Stablecoin issuer Tether will make tether (USDT) available at 24,000 ATMs in Brazil starting Nov. 3, the firm said Thursday.

Tether will enable the conversion of USDT to Brazilian reals through an agreement with Brazilian crypto services provider SmartPay, which is integrated with TecBan, a local company that owns 24,000 ATMs under the brand name of Banco24Horas.

Users will be able to send USDT from any wallet – including exchanges – to an ATM, SmartPay CEO Rocelo Lopes told CoinDesk. Beginning in February, the company will allow users to deposit Brazilian reals at ATMs and receive USDT in their wallets.

“Adding tether tokens to ATMs across Brazil provides the opportunity to include more people in the financial system,” said Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino. “This will bring major changes not only to the payments industry but to the entire Brazilian financial ecosystem.”

Brazilians transacted 1.4 billion USDT in August across 79,836 operations, according to Tether.

In May, Tether launched its MXNT token pegged to Mexico’s peso as a “testing ground” in Latin America, the firm said at that time, adding that the initiative was intended to “pave the way” for more fiat-pegged tokens in the region.

Read more: Why Brazilians Are Turning to Stablecoins Like Tether