How Juno Launched Mexico's Peso Stablecoin

In this Stabledash Live interview from Stablecoin Conference LATAM 2025, Drew Rogers sits down with Ben Reid, GM of Juno (Bitso's stablecoin issuance business), to explore how Latin America's largest crypto exchange evolved from a pure exchange into a three-pillar business.

With 11+ years operating Bitso's exchange, the launch of Bitso Business processing approximately 10% of the $65B+ US-Mexico remittance corridor, and direct integration to SPEI (Mexico's real-time interbank network as one of only 8 companies), Bitso had the perfect ingredients to launch MXNB in March 2025.

Ben reveals the strategic decision to ship fast with limited functionality, why they're building 1:1 peso conversion on Bitso's exchange instead of using an order book model, and how they prioritize active wallets over AUM as their North Star KPI in the early stage. He also unpacks the BRL1 consortium with Mercado Bitcoin, Foxbit, and Kay Invest, which solves Brazil's unique market maker capital efficiency problem where 20+ exchanges compete but few market makers can efficiently deploy capital across them with Brazil's 15% interest rate creating massive opportunity costs.

The conversation ends with Ben's contrarian thesis: While USD stablecoins followed a grassroots retail-to-institutional adoption curve, non-USD stablecoins will flip that model and go institutional-to-grassroots as global banks prioritize their worldwide operations. Evidence is already emerging with tier-1 Mexican banks saying "we don't do stablecoins today, but we need to."

Timestamps:
00:21 - Introduction: Three pillars of Bitso's business model
01:52 - How Bitso's expansion differed from Coinbase/Kraken (payments vs institutional)
03:26 - Bitso Business: 10% of US-Mexico remittances run through Bitso rails
04:36 - Ben's journey: Kraken to Juno GM role
05:17 - Ramping on crypto as Trad5 guy at Kraken
07:05 - Why launch now: The 10-yard line decision to ship fast
08:13 - Current MXNB state: ~$1M AUM, high volume in DEX pools
10:05 - Exchange listing complexity: Why not on Bitso yet
11:09 - Building 1:1 conversion vs order book model
12:11 - CoinGecko/CoinMarketCap visibility problem
13:43 - The panel: Non-USD stablecoins measurement beyond AUM
15:25 - Key KPI: Active wallets over TPV or AUM in early stage
17:19 - Why 100,000 pesos ($5,000) mint/burn threshold matters
19:22 - BRL1 consortium: Solving Brazil's unique market maker problem
20:16 - Brazil reality: 20+ exchanges, few market makers, 15% interest rate
21:19 - BRL1 as inter-exchange liquidity network
24:18 - Ben's background: Derivatives trader turned crypto/FinTech
26:45 - Tier-1 Mexican bank FX desk: "We need to do stablecoins"
28:15 - Wholesale finance use cases: Settling oil tankers with atomic settlement
30:09 - Hot take: Non-USD stablecoins follow institutional-to-grassroots curve

About Ben Reid & Juno:
Ben Reid is GM of Juno, Bitso's stablecoin issuance subsidiary that launched MXNB (Mexican peso stablecoin) in March 2025. Previously Global Head of BD at Kraken with involvement in Global Dollar Network and MiCA-compliant stablecoin issuers, Ben brought derivatives trading and FinTech background to lead Juno's strategy. Juno represents Bitso's third business pillar alongside their 11-year-old exchange (Latin America's largest) and Bitso Business (processing ~10% of US-Mexico remittances).

About Stabledash Live:
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