Bitcoin Startup BitPagos Acquires Argentinian Exchange Unisend

BitPagos has acquired Unisend Argentina, the country's first order-book exchange, as part of an undisclosed deal for cash and equity.

The announcement

follows the sale of the exchange subsidiary Unisend Mexico, and BitPagos' $1.18m funding round finalized last September.

CEO Sebastian Serrano explained that the acquisition will provide BitPagos with a third product offering to complement its existing payment processing service and Ripio, its wallet and brokerage offering.

Serrano told CoinDesk:

"We want to build the access to bitcoin across Latin America and we thought that part of building that access is building liquidity. It was the next step to start exposing the liquidity generated by merchant services and the consumer side to the market."

Serrano said the exchange will also help BitPagos market the liquidity it receives from its bitcoin-accepting merchants. Additionally, while Unisend has faced issues with Argentinean banks in the past, Serrano suggested the service is unlikely to experience interruptions

The exchange service is currently operating under the Unisend branding, with the service charging 2% for deposit and 0.6% for trades.

Members of the Unisend leadership, Serrano said, will move on to other ventures following the sale.

Buenos Aires image via Shutterstock