Dock to Use Crypto in International Money Transfers

Brazilian financial services provider Dock plans to use cryptocurrencies to process international remittances, according to a Friday (Jan. 21) Reuters report.

The company also plans to expand to Latin America and Europe. Per the report, Brazilian reais will be converted into bitcoin and then into another currency. From there, the funds will reach end users through Dock customers, such as Vivo or Natura.

“It will be both a quick and cheap way of making remittances,” Frederico Amaral, head of products and technology at Dock, told Reuters in an interview.

Created in 2014, Dock was known as Conductor until last year. In December, Dock also got approval from the Brazilian Central Bank to buy rival Brasil Pré-pagos (BPP), which came with a financial institution license.

Reuters writes that international transfers have become an important aspect for FinTechs like Remessa Online and Wise, which can sell services at better prices than big banks.

Additionally, Dock recently purchased Cacao, a Mexican card processing startup. The move was Dock’s first buy outside of Brazil and its third acquisition overall.

See also: Brazilian FinTech Dock Acquires Mexican Card Processor Cacao

The acquisition helped to broaden Dock’s regional reach, driving up its mission of positioning itself as the chief FinTech provider in Latin America. Cacao will also now call itself Dock.

“The two companies share significant values and a core mission to enable their clients to democratize, through technology, access to the financial system for the millions of unbanked and underbanked people in Latin America,” said Antonio Soares, CEO of Dock.

Cacao was founded in 2017, and has thus far released over four million cards across its card management and credit card platforms.

Dock is the only Brazilian company offering card issuing. With its acquisition of Cacao, it now has acquiring and banking-as-a-service capabilities on a single platform.