Advisor Aníbal Garrido believes that this is “a kind of bifurcation of the market.”
The economist Aarón Olmos considers that this asset must show efficiency, effectiveness and effectiveness.
The remittance market in Latin America, historically dominated by high intermediation costs, faces a structural change. The money order giant, Western Union, made official the launch of its own stablecoin, called US Dollar Payment Token (USDPT).
Considering that the cost of sending money through Western Union can range between 0.5% and 4% of the total amount, added to a markup on the exchange rate and a new 1% federal tax on cash remittances implemented in 2026, the company intends to use this asset as an efficient settlement layer to enable almost instant payments and available 24 hours a day.
By the end of this year, in addition, the firm plans to launch the “Stable by Western Union” platform, which will be aimed at consumers in more than 40 countries, with an aggressive focus on payment corridors to Latin America.
However, analysts consulted by CriptoNoticias warn that this movement is, in essence, a survival strategy given the loss of ground compared to cheaper digital solutions. They, in fact, doubt that this asset, which operates on the Solana network and is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, will manage to displace the sovereignty that bitcoin (BTC) and other digital currencies have already granted to Latin Americans.
A real solution for the Latin American user?
The Venezuelan economist and professor at the Institute of Higher Studies in Administration (IESA), Aarón Olmos, believes that, for the USDPT to penetrate the habit of the Latin migrant who sends money to his country, it must demonstrate tangible benefits over the current model. In his opinion, the success of this digital currency in the region It will depend exclusively on the commission structure.
«If sending a remittance through Western Union using your digital currency is just as expensive as sending fiat money, we are not doing anything. The market has already changed; People are pivoting through different platforms, trying the one that solves their problems in terms of speed and price,” explains Olmos.
The specialist highlights that Latin Americans already have their own financial strategies to avoid traditional bureaucracy: “People already use everything from Binance to any number of platforms to avoid costs,” he remembers.
Likewise, he points out that Western Union has to be competitive at the operational level, be simpler, and even offer a favorable exchange rate “to connect with banking in a more attractive way than what we already have.”
For his part, the Venezuelan advisor Aníbal Garrido, director of the Blockchain, Trading and Crypto Academy (BT&C) of the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), points out that Western Union is trying to save his business in the face of the advance of the fintech and stablecoins, that already operate 24/7.
«I don’t think it is an innovation, it is rather a competitive expression. Western Union is seeing how its traditional business is eroded and is launching its asset along the same paths as what is now displacing its model. It will use blockchains to make what it already has more efficient, which is its global distribution. “It is the total validation of a model,” says Garrido in dialogue with CriptoNoticias.
The gap between free money and corporate control
Unlike assets like USD Tether (USDT) or USD Coin (USDC), which have gained ground in fragile economies in the region due to their relative independence, The USDPT was born under a strict compliance scheme.
Garrido defines this situation as a “kind of bifurcation of the market”, where Western Union does not compete for being “free money”, but for being “money integrated into the system”.
«USDT and USDC won Latin America over because they solved access to hard money and they did it without asking permission. Western Union is going to compete on the side of compliance and surveillance. I would call it a kind of corporate programmable hard dollar,” Garrido highlights.
For his part, Olmos clarified that USDPT would not be a competitor of USDT or USDC. In his opinion, these assets are within the maneuvers of Latin Americans and, therefore, a stablecoin from a money transfer company like Western Union “has to find its place.”
«In some ways, the company has a space as a digital money sending platform company. Now its stablecoin has to fight for its place, demonstrating efficiency, effectiveness and effectiveness,” said the university professor.
Western Union’s entry into the cryptocurrency ecosystem marks a milestone in the convergence between traditional finance and digital assets. However, this “corporate programmable dollar” remains under the complete control of intermediaries who can, at will, block or restrict user funds.
A structure that, in practice, moves away from the bitcoin (BTC) proposal, whose decentralized and censorship-resistant nature remains the only guarantee of real financial freedom for users in Latin America in current digital times.