Bilingual legal counsel for the companies building stablecoin and crypto payment infrastructure across Latin America — structured to satisfy U.S. and local requirements alike.
Latin America has become the proving ground for crypto payments. Dollar-denominated stablecoins are solving real problems — inflation, expensive remittances, limited dollar banking — and a new generation of companies is building the rails. But operating across the Americas means answering to more than one set of rules at once.
I help payments and fintech companies build legal foundations that work on both sides of the border: U.S. securities, tax, and AML requirements reconciled with the local realities of the markets they serve. With offices in Miami and Medellín and full bilingual capability, I close the gap that usually slows cross-border expansion.
Why bilingual, cross-border counsel matters
Most crypto companies operating in Latin America hit the same friction: their U.S. legal team doesn't speak Spanish or know local requirements, and their local team doesn't know U.S. securities and AML law. Documents get translated badly, audits stall, and banking partners lose confidence in what they cannot read. I conduct compliance interviews and produce deliverables in both languages, so nothing is lost between your operational and legal teams.
Two regimes at once, not one
A rail that touches the U.S. answers to U.S. law — FinCEN registration and state money-transmitter licensing, the Bank Secrecy Act, securities classification under Howey, and now the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins. A rail that touches a Latin American market answers to local law too, and the region is uneven: Brazil supervises virtual asset service providers under Law 14,478/2022 through the Banco Central, Mexico's 2018 Fintech Law and Banxico keep regulated institutions at arm's length, Colombia works through supervised pilots and DIAN guidance, and Argentina is formalizing a provider registry. A model cleared in one country can trigger licensing or FX controls in the next.
A structure that satisfies both sides of the border
The goal is a single, coherent structure — entity, licensing, AML program, opinion letters, and documentation — that a U.S. bank can rely on and a local regulator can accept. The conversion points where local currency meets crypto, the on-ramps and off-ramps, are where most of the legal and operational risk actually concentrates, so they deserve as much attention as anything on-chain. Building all of this correctly from the start is far cheaper than retrofitting compliance after a frozen account or a stalled fundraising round.
Building across the Americas?
Whether you're scaling a payments company or entering a new market, let's structure it to satisfy both U.S. and local requirements.