Mexico Becomes A Hotbed for Alternative Neobanks

The Mexican market, with over 90 million adults demanding financial solutions, is showing increasing adoption levels of digital alternatives to traditional banking.

Revolut and Nubank, two large neobanks, have disclosed milestones that indicate Mexico has reached an inflection point in its shift toward these solutions.

During its recent 2026 Q1 earnings call, Nu Holdings highlighted that for the first time, it had reached break-even since its entrance to Mexico in 2019.

David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank, stated that they had “achieved break-even and become the third largest financial institution in the market, reaching 15 million customers.” Furthermore, during the earnings call, the company stated that Mexico presented opportunities similar to those of the Brazilian market a decade ago, with its addressable profit pool exceeding $40 billion per year, growing faster than major banking markets.

Nubank expects to invest $4.3 billion through 2030, as it prepares to launch banking operations in the country, targeting a sector currently underserved by traditional banks.

Revolut, a UK-based neobank that only started operating in Mexico in January, is also ramping up investments to prepare itself for a similar influx of customers. The company reported that it had scaled its investment to $167 million, signaling its trust in the upcoming growth of its operations.

By the end of March, Revolut had reached over 290,000 customer registrations in Mexico, holding $218 million in deposits.

Revolut Mexico CEO Juan Guerra highlighted that the reception of the Mexican market had exceeded their expectations. “Clearly, there is a strong appetite for a banking app that offers everything in one place: attractive returns, a credit card, instant transfers within and outside of Mexico, investments, and much more,” he stressed.

The two companies’ push to reach more customers in Mexico, and their corresponding investments, underscore that the Mexican market is ready to shift to digital-first operations in an ecosystem where only 46% of individuals aged 15 and older hold a bank account.

Ben McKenzie came out swinging against cryptocurrency and Donald Trump’s meme coin while speaking to Bill Maher. “I mean, the insiders always win, and the general public always loses on average,” he told Maher.

McKenzie, the former “O.C.” star who wrote, directed, and produced the documentary “Everyone is Lying to You for Money,” was joined by historian Dan Jones and New York Times columnist David French on Friday Night’s episode of “Real Time” on HBO.

Maher and McKenzie were discussing the $TRUMP meme coin when the host brought up McKenzie’s assertion that very few people may actually be getting much from the deal.

“I mean, and you said it could be as little as 20 individuals who are really profiting from this. And everybody else, I means millions of people have lost their shirt. When … it’s an insider-trading scam,” he said.

“Absolutely. I mean, the insiders always win, and the general public always loses on average,” McKenzie answered.

“This is just that on steroids,” Maher replied, to which McKenzie agreed. “Yeah, exactly. And to give you an example, Trump coin, right, his meme coin, down 96%. Right? They had all the coins, his followers buy them, they dump on the followers. Now, some of them got something out of it. He hosted a dinner for the top investors. So the top investors got to have dinner with the President of the United States.”

“In my opinion, the cryptocurrency industry represents the largest Ponzi scheme in history,” McKenzie said in 2022 while testifying before the Senate Banking Committee. “In fact, by the time the dust settles, crypto may well represent a fraud at least 10 times bigger than Madoff.”

McKenzie, who has been outspoken about his concerns about cryptocurrency for years, also co-authored the book “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud.”

“I started warning people in October of last year [and] the market peaked in November, so just a month after Jacob Silverman, my colleague and I wrote our first piece warning celebrities about the dangers of endorsing these cryptocurrencies and NFTs and whatnot,” McKenzie told CNN. “Since then the market has lost approximately 70-75% of it’s value — and that’s just the value that’s on paper.”

Coinbase’s Fred Ersham Shows Interest in Venezuela’s Economic Recovery Potential

While Venezuela has been battling an economic crisis for years, including devaluation and hyperinflation, recent events have brought the possibility of a recovery, with potential gains for international investors taking part.

Fred Ersham, co-founder of U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Paradigm, a venture capital firm, has traveled to Venezuela several times and has been meeting with government officials, including interim president Delcy Rodriguez and U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, according to Bloomberg. The reason behind these visits would be to explore investments as the country aims to reinsert itself in the international economic system.

Ersham, with a net worth of $2.6 billion, would be interested in investing in several sectors of the Venezuelan economy, including fintech and payments, but also in energy and gas.

He appeared this week in a tech event organized by one of the main state-owned banks, Banco de Venezuela, to promote the country’s potential to become “the best country in Latam.”

In private meetings with business leaders, Ersham highlighted that assets in Venezuela were “deeply undervalued” and that now was the moment to invest in the country. Nonetheless, no deal has been disclosed at the time of writing.

While Venezuelans have managed to build their own financial infrastructure using cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance as a gateway for stablecoins, the country is ripe for international financial services companies like Coinbase, which could also expand its influence as part of the nation’s alternative financial system.

Other companies are seeking to position themselves to provide institutional financial services during a transitional period. Erebor Bank would be willing to bridge the Venezuelan financial system to the world, offering correspondent lines with Venezuelan banks and setting up sub-accounts for clients. Jacob Hirshman, co-founder of Erebor, would have suggested the idea to the new Venezuela’s central bank chief, Luis Perez.