Crypto owners in Latin America stop using the services of cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase en masse, switching to Bitget.
The lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase became a catalyst for the growing popularity of Bitget among investors in Latin America. Thus, from June 6 to June 9, the number of Bitget users in Latin America grew by 43%. This was reported by the exchange’s representatives in a commentary to Cointelegraph.
According to their data, the number of new crypto exchange customers in Brazil increased by 54%, while the total amount of deposits grew by 208%. In Argentina, the customer base grew by 33% and deposits increased by 87%. The cryptocurrency exchange also operates in Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico. Over the past few days, Bitget’s deposit volume in the region rose by a total of 134%.
Bitget’s spike in popularity in Latin America was a direct result of the lawsuits filed by U.S. regulators against its main competitors in the region. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance on 13 charges, including illegal manipulation of customer funds, and also accused Coinbase of lack of registration and a number of other violations.
The regulator’s actions triggered a net outflow of funds from Binance and Coinbase, which collectively lost approximately $4 billion — $3.1 billion in ETH and $864 million in BTC. According to DefiLlama, as of 12:00 p.m. (GMT+3) on June 12, users withdrew $3.67 billion from Binance accounts over the past seven days. Bitget’s figures increased by $22.8 million.
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, said the net withdrawal of funds on the exchange on June 10 was $392 million. In his opinion, some data on withdrawals are distorted because analysts don’t take market volatility into account when reporting on Binance’s losses. Zhao also underlined that net outflows are in no way reflected in the exchange’s performance, citing the situation in November 2022, when Binance had a net outflow of $7 billion a day.
Latin America is one of the priority markets for both Binance and Coinbase. Earlier this year, Binance partnered with Mastercard to launch a prepaid crypto card in Brazil. Coinbase announced a partnership with payment service providers Pix and Ebanx in Brazil to make it easier for locals to buy and sell cryptocurrency for the Brazilian real.
