Key takeaways:
- Linka, a stablecoin settlement platform, says it now runs a Peruvian exporter’s full trade finance operations on its platform
- The company converts between stablecoins and local currencies across Latin America, with 16 bank connections in Peru, Honduras and Bolivia
- Linka is betting on Peru’s growing role as a trade corridor between Latin America and Asia, anchored by the new Chancay megaport
Linka, a stablecoin settlement platform, says it is now running the full trade finance operations of a Peruvian exporter through its platform, covering both the exporter and the importers who buy from them.
Victor Egoavil, the company’s chief executive officer, disclosed the development in a post on LinkedIn last Monday.
“We have a Peruvian exporter running their full operation through us. Their importers are using us to finance customs and pay taxes. Both sides of the deal, one platform,” Egoavil said.
“That’s what we mean by 360-degree, and we’re just getting started.”
Linka converts between stablecoins, including USDT and USDC, and local fiat currencies across Latin America, offering same-day settlement in either direction. The company operates 16 bank connections across Peru, Honduras and Bolivia, along with other partner corridors, and says its rails are used by global companies, fintechs, exchanges and importers and exporters, including a fintech previously acquired by Stripe and several major crypto exchanges.
The company has been operating for more than five years and is backed by venture capital investors as well as Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer.
Why Peru became the starting point
Speaking further, Egoavil said Peru was not simply where Linka happened to launch, but where the company felt it needed to start. “Peru is not just where we started, it’s where we had to start,” he said, pointing to a broader transformation he said is underway in the country’s trade infrastructure. “A dozen new port terminals are either under construction or in planning right now,” he said.
He pointed to the COSCO Shipping Ports Chancay Peru megaport as central to that shift. “[It] already cut shipping time from Asia from 40 days to 23,” Egoavil said, adding that container volumes moving through Peru are projected to double by 2030. He said a bi-oceanic railway connecting Peru’s Pacific coast to Brazil’s Atlantic ports is also being explored.
A bet on Peru as a Latin America-Asia gateway
Meanwhile, Egoavil said Peru “is becoming the entry point from Latin America into Asia, and the gateway back,” and framed Linka’s ambitions around the wider corridor rather than Peru alone. “We’re not just building for Peru. We’re building for the corridor,” he said.
He said his years working across crypto mining, consumer wallets and exchanges led him to conclude that the bigger opportunity in the industry lay elsewhere. “The real opportunity was never about speculation. It was always going to be about making real commerce work better,” Egoavil said.
He described trade finance, the business of helping importers and exporters move goods across borders, as one of the oldest and most underserved segments of global finance, and said Linka’s goal is to combine that business with stablecoin settlement and lending.