SNEAK PEEK
- Soccer team São Paulo announced the acquisition of Giuliano Galoppo.
- The money transfer was executed in the form of the stablecoin USDC.
- Latin American exchange Bitso was used to facilitate the transaction.
Recently this week, São Paulo, one of the most prominent soccer teams announced the acquisition of Giuliano Galoppo, a player from Banfield, the Argentinian mid-table club. Though the player transfers are a bit normal and general, what grabbed the attention was the use of the USDC stablecoin for the transfer.
The money transfer in the form of USDC stablecoin via the Latin American exchange Bitso marked a historic moment for Bitso, São Paulo, and broadly South American soccer. Well, this was undoubtedly not the first time Bitso was involved with a soccer club. Back in January, Bitso become a prominent sponsor of one of the biggest, the legendary Morumbi Stadium.
The use of USDC for money transfer was basically aimed at avoiding the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) definitely made some sense for Banfield. This is because the regulation of the bank does not mention the word ‘crypto.’
The announcement did manage to generate specific interest in Argentina as it was conceived as an attempt by the club to bypass the present foreign exchange restrictions of the country. The Chief Strategy Officer at Circle, Dante Disparte, recently shared a tweet that said:
As the payment medium to avoid currency risk.
Neither club revealed the amount involved in the deal, but the estimations by the Argentine newspaper suggest that it was around $8 million. That’s certainly a notable amount considering the size of Banfield.
Whatever the reasons would be, the usage of USDC for transferring money did accelerate the process and was proven a good tactic for marketing. However, it has nothing positive to do with the underlying issue in Banfield’s case.
