The crypto loan startup Ledn, which primarily serves users in Latin America, is now offering USDC stablecoin savings accounts through a partnership with the lending and trading conglomerate Genesis.
(Disclosure: Genesis is owned by CoinDesk’s parent company, Digital Currency Group.)
Genesis VP of Originations Matt Ballensweig said in a statement his company believes this will “be a successful collaboration” that boosts liquidity for institutional investors in North America as well.
Stablecoins have become increasingly popular across Latin America. For example, MakerDAO Head of Business Development Greg Diprisco said Wednesday at Consensus: Distributed that Argentina is the leading market for Maker’s dollar-pegged dai stablecoin. There are currently 108 million dai in global circulation.
Read more: Stablecoin Supply Breaks $10B as Traders Demand Dollars Over Bitcoin
Similarly, Ledn co-founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo said his firm’s service was inspired by customer demand for an account that lets them earn interest on stablecoin holdings.
“Users can convert their pesos into USDC and send them to our savings account where they can earn 7.5%,” Di Bartolomeo said. “We are already seeing large moves in LatAm forex rates relative to the U.S. dollar given recent events, making a pre-existing problem worse. Everyone knows and understands U.S. dollars in the region, which is why our Ledn USDC Savings Account could not come at a better time.”
Earlier this year, Coinbase and Uniswap collaborated to boost USDC liquidity across the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Ledn is now the second project, after Dharma, to offer such interest-bearing products for USDC.