Ripio
Argentine crypto exchange and fintech pivoting toward B2B stablecoin infrastructure in Latin America.
On the record
Checkpoint: Next disclosed funding round or confirmed stablecoin volume update
The call
Ripio has real licenses and a bank partnership, but it is shrinking while betting on a stablecoin pivot that has not yet grown past six figures a month.
Ripio lets people in Latin America buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrency, and it also helps businesses move money across borders using digital assets. The company has government licenses in 8 countries and works with Mercado Pago, a huge payments platform, which should make it hard for competitors to copy. However, bigger exchanges like Binance and Bitso are taking most of the customers, Ripio's staff shrank by more than half since 2023, and its website gets about 27% fewer visitors than it did last quarter. The company is trying to focus on a new idea (helping businesses use local cryptocurrencies and bonds instead of traditional ways), but that business is still tiny. If Ripio can grow that new business from a few hundred thousand dollars a month to millions a month, or if it gets fresh investment and stops losing employees, the story could turn around.
Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. AI trading bots and robo-advisors could compress exchange fees over time, but no specific AI product is displacing Ripio today. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: Binance and Bitso, plus banks like Itau and BTG Pactual adding crypto products. Binance holds about 54% of LATAM exchange volume and Bitso leads locally, while banks now offer crypto directly to the same customers. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. VASP licenses across 8 countries and a market-maker role in Mercado Pago's stablecoin give Ripio ties rivals cannot copy instantly.
What would change this call
Ripio headcount count in next public filing or LinkedIn snapshot. Further decline from 165 would confirm contraction rather than repositioning.
Announcement of a new Ripio funding round in 2026. Would show investors still back the B2B pivot after five years without fresh capital.
Monthly wARS or wBRL stablecoin volume figures if disclosed. A jump from six figures to millions would validate the stablecoin infrastructure bet.
Announcement of a new Ripio funding round in 2026. Would show investors still back the B2B pivot after five years without fresh capital.
Monthly wARS or wBRL stablecoin volume figures if disclosed. A jump from six figures to millions would validate the stablecoin infrastructure bet.
Key numbers
- Headcount fell 54% from 2023 peak to 165 by June 2026
- Website visits down 27.5% quarter over quarter to 151K
- wARS stablecoin volume around $160,000 to $200,000 per month
Named risks
- Sustained headcount contraction, down 17.1% YoY to 165 by June 2026, may signal deeper financial strain.
- No confirmed new funding since September 2021, leaving the B2B pivot reliant on five-year-old capital.
- Stablecoin and tokenized bond volumes remain in the low hundreds of thousands USD per month as of January 2026.
- Dominant incumbents Binance and Bitso continue to expand licensing and compliance footprints in the same markets.
- Declining website traffic, down 27.5% quarter over quarter as of June 2026, suggests weakening retail engagement.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Binance | losing to | Binance holds about 54% of LATAM centralized exchange trading volume as of August 2025 |
| Bitso | losing to | Bitso processed $25.2B in 2024 flows versus Ripio's six-figure monthly stablecoin volumes |
| Lemon | losing to | Lemon holds about 15% regional market share per a 2024 report cited August 2025 |
| Itau and BTG Pactual banks | contesting | Traditional banks increasingly offer crypto products, blurring lines with fintech exchanges as of August 2025 |
Questions people ask
- Is Ripio profitable in 2026?
- No public revenue or profit figures are disclosed. Ripio's headcount fell from 356 employees in May 2023 to 165 by June 2026, a 17.1% YoY drop, and website traffic fell 27.5% quarter over quarter, suggesting cost cutting rather than confirmed profitability.
- Has Ripio raised new funding recently?
- No confirmed new funding since a $50M Series B led by Digital Currency Group in September 2021. A 2025-dated announcement of a similar $50M Series B appears to be a republication of the 2021 round, not fresh capital, as of April 2025.
- Who is Ripio's biggest competitor?
- Binance dominates with about 54% of Latin American centralized exchange trading volume as of August 2025 (vendor-claimed by the citing source), while Bitso leads regionally with $25.2B in 2024 flows, making both larger rivals than Ripio.
- Could AI replace Ripio's business?
- AI could automate Ripio's chatbot support, KYC verification, and trading education content, but its VASP No. 36 licensing across 8 countries and Mercado Pago market-maker role (reported 2024) form a regulatory moat AI-only entrants cannot easily replicate.
- What is Ripio's B2B stablecoin pivot?
- CEO Sebastian Serrano is pivoting Ripio from retail exchange to B2B infrastructure, launching peso-pegged wARS (about $200K volume December 2025, $160K January 2026), wBRL, wMXN, and a tokenized AL30 Argentine bond, as of January 2026.
- Does Mercado Pago work with Ripio?
- Ripio has served as exchange and market maker for Mercado Pago's dollar-backed stablecoin in Brazil, reported by Reuters in 2024, giving it a distribution link to Latin America's largest fintech ecosystem.
Timeline
- 2026-06Headcount down to 165 employees, -17.1% YoY, -14.5% over six months per Crustdata
- 2026-01wARS stablecoin volume about $160K; CEO describes pivot to B2B infrastructure and stablecoin focus
- 2025-12wARS peso stablecoin launches with about $200K transaction volume
- 2025-11Ripio discloses corporate crypto treasury exceeding $100M, second largest in LATAM after OranjeBTC
- 2025-10AL30 tokenized Argentine bond trades over 1 million units in a single day around election
- 2025-04Company states 280+ employees and over 2 million users in funding-related announcement
- 2024Ripio reported as exchange and market maker for Mercado Pago's dollar-backed stablecoin in Brazil
- 2022-08Panda Exchange merger completed
- 2021-09Series B raises $50M led by Digital Currency Group with Tim Draper, Boost VC, FJ Labs
- 2021-01Acquisition of Brazilian exchange BitcoinTrade closes
Revision history
21 July 2026
First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Ripio -> History (2026-07-21)
- Ripio - Headcount, Funding & Open Jobs (2026-06-21)
- Ripio Raises $1.9M for Microfinance in S. America (2020-03-27)
- Latin American Crypto Firm Ripio Raises $50M to Accelerate Regional Expansion (2023-05-11)
- Ripio Secures $50M in Series B Funding to Accelerate Latin America's Blockchain Revolution (2025-04-19)
- Crypto Exchange Ripio Reveals $100M Crypto Treasury (2025-11-20)
- Ripio CEO Bets on Local Stablecoins in Latin America (2026-01-20)
- Latin America's exchange flows grew ninefold in three years: Dune (2025-08-19)
- The State of LATAM Crypto Markets, Kaiko Research (2025-09-25)
- Blockchain Industry Original In-Depth Content (2025-08-25)
- App, Wallet, Crypto Trading (2025-10-27)
- New progress in Binance regulation! Obtained the 21st global supervision authorization in Brazil and expanded (2025-01-02)