Tech Innovators Lead the Charge to Ensure Bitcoin Adoption in El Salvador is a Success

Open Bank Project, API3, Qredo & Sovryn Form Alliance with Banco Hipotecario to Power Bitcoinization in El Salvador

BERLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Bitcoin Alliance, a new alliance between Banco Hipotecario, TESOBE - the company behind the Open Bank Project - API3, Qredo and Sovryn will bring forth the next generation of Blockchain applications offering open banking solutions to provide financial inclusion to all in El Salvador. El Salvador's groundbreaking Bitcoin Law entered into force on September 7, 2021, introducing unfamiliar challenges for traditional financial institutions as well as more specific consumer needs related to bitcoin storage and currency exchange. Together, leaders in the blockchain space will utilize their resources and knowledge to facilitate a smooth adoption of bitcoin as legal tender, ensuring citizens reap the benefits of digital banking and national infrastructure can handle this momentous change.

Banco Hipotecario, a national bank with a commercial focus, joined forces with the Open Bank Project and API3 to assess and facilitate solutions for Salvadorans and the financial service sector. The API3 and Open Bank Project 10-year partnership has set major ambitions to merge traditional and decentralized industries. With Banco Hipotecario, the joint-partnership hopes to realize the potential for end-to-end open digital systems.

The alliance has selected Qredo's decentralized custodial infrastructure to power bitcoin banking solutions in El Salvador. Alongside this, Sovryn, the Bitcoin-native decentralized trading and lending platform will provide the infrastructure to enable traditional banks to offer Bitcoin-native DeFi products such as lending, trading and Bitcoin backed-stablecoins to their customers.

The collective aim is to accelerate the democratization of Bitcoin electronic payments and help citizens enjoy the benefits of digital and decentralized transactions. It will also support the nation’s larger financial framework to promote a smooth and effective integration of Bitcoin as legal tender, driving financial inclusion for Salvadorans.

The Bitcoin phenomenon is propagating across Latin America. By leveraging Qredo’s revolutionary crypto infrastructure, which is entirely compatible with the Bitcoin Lightning Network used in El Salvador, combined with Sovryn’s ability to build on bitcoin, TESOBE’s APIs and API3’s Airnode, this alliance will support El Salvador’s seamless transition into a crypto-friendly financial services system.

“This alliance is a great opportunity for El Salvador to create new financial products that support the needs of our Salvadoran citizens,” said Celina Padilla, president of Bank Hipotecario de El Salvador. “We are closer than ever to achieving true financial inclusion and I am proud that Banco Hipotecario is the first bank at the national level to carry out this type of alliance. Now everyone has their eyes on our country and on our bank.”

“We are super excited and grateful for the opportunity to assemble this advanced Crypto Banking infrastructure, which will act as the foundation for a new breed of financial services in El Salvador,” says Simon Redfern, CEO of TESOBE and founder of the Open Bank Project. “Our combined technologies will help Banco Hipotecario deliver more transparent and inclusive financial services to Salvadorans – especially the underbanked part of the population – and will remove many of the uncertainties that stand between El Salvador and the advantages of cryptocurrency adoption.”

“API3 is incredibly excited to announce this alliance and we can’t wait to see the synergies between these leading technologies in action. As the world’s financial system is modernized, we will help build a foundation for the future of digital banking that can easily be adapted to fit the needs of those who will benefit from it most,” says Heikki Vänttinen, Co-Founder at API3.

"We are glad to get in at the ground zero of global bitcoinization," says Anthony Foy, Qredo CEO. "Qredo brings the scalability and instant settlement to underpin bitcoin banking infrastructure, making it possible to adopt crypto assets securely on a national scale, with none of the governance limitations imposed by private keys."

Edan Yago, core contributor at Sovryn, commented: “With its adoption of Bitcoin, El Salvador has chosen to rewrite the script of its national finance system and to blaze a trail for other nations to follow. DeFi is now coming to the world and Sovryn is playing a crucial part in these early practical steps towards making Bitcoin adoption a reality in El Salvador and beyond.”

About Banco Hipotecario de El Salvador

Banco Hipotecario de El Salvador, a national bank with a commercial focus, offers a wide range of banking products and services such as consumer and corporate loans, savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and related financial services to individuals, small- and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations.

About the Open Bank Project

Led by Berlin-based software company TESOBE GmbH, the Open Bank Project is the leading API Management platform for banks that want to ensure a rapid and secure enhancement of their digital offerings. The Open Bank Project assists banks in deploying Open Banking platforms by providing access to over 450 standardised APIs, used by our vibrant global community of over 11,000 developers.

About API3

The API3 Foundation is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) leading the movement from legacy third-party oracle networks to first-party oracle solutions that deliver more security, efficiency, and regulatory compliance. Powered by Airnode first-party oracles, API3’s Decentralized APIs (dAPIs) are decentrally controlled and blockchain-native data feeds with quantifiable security.

About Qredo

Qredo is a decentralized digital asset management infrastructure and product suite designed to unlock new opportunities for institutional investors in digital assets and decentralized finance. Qredo's Layer 2 blockchain protocol enables users to seamlessly transfer and settle BTC, ETH, and ERC-20 tokens. Assets are secured by Qredo’s advanced Gen 2.0 multi-party computation (MPC), which provides tier-1 bank security and institutional-grade governance.

About Sovryn

Sovryn is a Bitcoin-native financial operating system that allows people to utilize their Bitcoin in decentralised applications. The Sovryn protocol provides an infrastructure using layer-2 technologies for the next generation of DeFi. For more details about the Sovryn tech stack, its use cases, and the SOV token see the Sovryn Black Paper.