Kustodia launches smart contract escrow for LATAM’s $600m fraud crisis
Mexico’s first peso-denominated blockchain escrow goes live on SPEI for high-value P2P transactions.
Mexico’s first peso-denominated blockchain escrow goes live on SPEI for high-value P2P transactions.
Mexico City, April 29, 2026 — Kustodia, a programmable escrow platform for Latin America’s high-value economy, today announced the public launch of its smart contract escrow service in Mexico. Buyers and sellers can now protect any transaction — from used vehicles to real estate deposits to B2B contracts — using SPEI, Mexico’s instant payment rail. Funds are held in audited smart contracts until both parties confirm delivery, with no human intermediary involved.
Payment fraud stripped $44.3 billion from the global economy in 2024, according to Juniper Research. Latin America has the world’s highest fraud rate, with 20 percent of merchant revenue lost annually. In Mexico, every dollar of fraud costs $4.08 in total economic damage — representing approximately $600 million USD in annual losses, according to data from Cloudflare and Mexico Business News.