Bancolombia is launching a cryptocurrency exchange called Wenia, with plans to become a significant competitor to Binance and Bitso in the region. The initiative also includes a stablecoin pegged to the value of the Colombian peso.
Colombia’s leading bank, Bancolombia, announced the launch of Wenia, a platform for buying, selling, exchanging, and sending digital assets, Forbes reports.
According to Pablo Arboleda, CEO of Wenia, the crypto exchange is designed with high security standards in mind. It’ll provide users with an affordable and efficient way to invest in digital assets. Arboleda also noted that the plan is to attract over 60,000 users in the platform’s first year and compete with local crypto exchanges Binance and Bitso.
To attract users to the crypto exchange, Bancolombia also launched COPW, a stablecoin pegged to the Colombian peso. On Weina, traders will be able to trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), and Polygon (MATIC). Only Colombian citizens residing in the country can access the crypto exchange.
Juan Carlos Mora, CEO of Bancolombia, said that the bank worked for almost ten years to create a solution that can facilitate the use of digital assets in the country. Mora also noted that all the assets presented on the platform aren’t securities, so the bank won’t offer the possibility of deposit insurance.
Wenia’s homepage warns traders of the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies, emphasizing the high volatility of digital assets and the likelihood of losing them. Diego Beltran Avila, Lawyer at Law Technologies, also highlighted that Wenia is a company independent from Bancolombia and registered in Bermuda. Thus, all disputes and claims of users will be handled by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) without the involvement of Bancolombia.
According to crypto exchange Bitso, the number of Colombians registered on the trading platform increased by 60% in 2023. Moreover, Chainalysis analysts noted that about 74% of crypto users in the country prefer to use CEXs.
