A new stablecoin, pegged to the value of the Chilean peso, is now live on the open source payment network Stellar – but has yet to prove popular with users.
Chile-based company CLPX Inc launched what it describes as the first Chilean peso-linked stablecoin, known as the “CLPX” token.
According to the Stellar Expert public ledger, the stablecoin has seen limited volume of just $ 12,689 out of a total of 12,902 trades since it launched on Monday.
CLPX was designed to provide a cheaper alternative to traditional peso-based transfers, using the Stellar network as it incurs “significantly” lower fees than transfers or wire transfer services.
“The new CLPX token is intended to streamline transfers and make it easy for investors around the world to use the copper-linked Chilean peso as security,” said an announcement.
CLPX also has an international exposure to Chile’s booming copper market, which was a key driver of economic recovery during the global pandemic. The Latin American nation is currently by far the world’s leading copper producer, with China being the main buyer of Chile’s red metals.
Although the project has expressed its strong ambitions, it is unclear how well the groundwork is for its performance. Aside from its low volume, CLPX Inc. is owned by a relatively unknown company called “KB Trading” that has no publicly traded partnerships on its website.
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While there is a growing trend in Latin American and Spanish-speaking countries to adopt crypto under El Salvador’s Bitcoin law, the regulatory landscape regarding Chile has been fairly calm.
In late May, Chile’s National Electricity Coordinator announced the Renova initiative, which will use blockchain technology to track and record the renewable energy consumption behind the country’s copper production.
The Central Bank of Chile has been researching the topic of blockchain and digital central bank currencies (CBDC) since 2018 as part of its “Strategic Plan 2018 to 2022”.
In 2019, Mario Marcel, the governor of the Chilean central bank, published a research report that found that the central bank was considering a Chilean CBDC for large customer adoption and cross-border payments, but also concerns about infrastructure costs, cybersecurity and anonymity at the time.
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