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Company Name: Yopaki
Founders: Francisco Chavarria (CEO) and Carlos Chida (CTO)
Date Founded: March 2023
Location of Headquarters: Austin, TX
Number of Employees: Four afloat time; 1 portion time
Website: https://www.yopaki.com/
Public oregon Private? Private
In 2021, Francisco Chavarria stood successful the assemblage astatine Bitcoin 2021 and watched arsenic Strike CEO Jack Mallers passionately delivered his now celebrated keynote speech during which helium revealed that El Salvador planned to marque bitcoin ineligible tender.
That infinitesimal sparked thing wrong Chavarria.
“It was dissimilar thing I’d experienced successful my nonrecreational career,” Chavarria told Bitcoin Magazine.
“I knew I had to bash thing successful the Bitcoin abstraction aft that. It was the seed,” helium added.
First-forward up 2 years, and Chavarria recovered himself putting his vocation arsenic a Software arsenic a Service (SaaS) advisor connected clasp to gully up the blueprints for Yopaki, a neobank and concern app with a Bitcoin-focus, aimed astatine serving the radical of his location country, Mexico. (Users extracurricular of Mexico tin besides usage Yopaki’s non-custodial Lighting wallet.)
Since then, helium and his co-founder, Carlos Chida, person been hard astatine enactment bringing Yopaki to life, including taking portion successful Wolf’s Bitcoin Accelerator program successful efforts to marque Yopaki arsenic cutting-edge and dynamic arsenic possible.
But earlier getting to that portion of the story, let’s commencement with the taste root of the platform’s name.
What’s In A Name?
“The sanction Yopaki comes from the past connection Nahuatl, the connection spoken by the Aztecs,” explained Chavarria.
“The Aztecs lived successful the halfway portion of what contiguous is Mexico, and they're the ones liable for immoderate of the biggest pyramids successful each of Latin America. The halfway of this humanities spot is called Teotihuacán, ‘the spot of the gods,’” helium added.
“The sanction itself, if I were to construe it into English, astir intimately means “the pursuit of happiness.’”
Judging by the sanction alone, it’s wide that Chavarria views Yopaki arsenic much than conscionable different concern endeavor — helium wants it to person a profound interaction connected those who usage it.
And he’ll request the app to person specified an interaction if helium and his squad are to win successful their mission: to crook each Mexican into a Bitcoiner.
2025 Dream Predictions for Bitcoin successful Mexico 🇲🇽😶🌫️
1. Bitcoin adoption successful Mexico surges.
2. Mexican Bitcoin startups pull planetary investors. With El Salvador’s influence, Mexico becomes the Latin American person for Bitcoin innovation.
3. Peso-Bitcoin integration deepens.…
Bitcoin In The Mexican Context
When Bitcoin is brought up successful the discourse of Latin America and different processing regions, it’s often referenced arsenic a instrumentality to “bank the unbanked.”
However, Mexico’s banking strategy is “quite advanced,” according to Chavarria.
“The infrastructure has been built for radical to person entree to banking,” helium explained.
“It whitethorn not beryllium the aforesaid banking that we person successful the U.S. (where Chavarria presently resides), but, for example, successful Mexico, determination are stores similar 7/11s called OXXOs, and they’re everywhere. Any idiosyncratic tin locomotion into an OXXO with an ID, and wrong 20 minutes, they tin locomotion retired with a Visa paper and an app,” helium added.
“It’s not precisely a bank, but it provides entree to outgo rails,” helium added.
Chavarria went connected to stock that these Visa cards complaint precocious fees, though.
“They’re precise predatory successful that sense,” helium said.
So, Yopaki provides its Mexican users with entree to 3 antithetic monetary accounts: a Mexican peso account, a U.S. dollar relationship and a (non-custodial) bitcoin Lightning wallet. Each of these accounts lets their users transact astatine little rates than said Visa cards. (In 2025, Yopaki volition besides alteration its Mexican users to bargain stocks, ETFs and different securities, arsenic well.)
By offering a bitcoin wallet alongside accounts for accepted currencies, Chavarria hopes to legitimize bitcoin successful the eyes of its users. However, helium besides feels that Yopaki has immoderate enactment to bash arsenic acold arsenic helping Mexicans to get comfy utilizing bitcoin, which is wherefore helium and his squad are doing what they tin to marque the process enjoyable.
Making Bitcoin Fun With Lotería
Lotería is a favourite pastime of the Mexican people. It’s comparable to Bingo but with images alternatively of numbers.
Chavarria and the Yopaki squad included it into the app with a Bitcoin slant — concepts and characters similar the Lightning Network and Max Keiser look successful the Yopaki mentation of the game.
“When it comes to Mexico, radical deliberation tequila, tacos, mariachi, and Lotería,” said Chavarria.
“There’s nary antagonistic connotation to the game. Because of this, the feedback we've received implicit the past mates of months has been, ‘Man, I didn't recognize that Bitcoin was fun,’” helium added.
Users gain sats arsenic they play Lotería wrong the app. When they’ve earned 1,000 sats oregon more, they tin larn done the app however to transportation those sats from Yopaki’s custody into their own, each wrong the Yopaki app.
Yopaki teamed up with Breez to bring its users a non-custodial Lightning wallet that doesn’t necessitate its users to to woody with the hassle of Lightning transmission management.
Yopaki + Breez
“One of the main reasons we decided to spell with Breez is that we knew astir their implementation of the Nodeless SDK done Liquid earlier it was public,” said Chavarria.
“We cognize transmission absorption is simply a cardinal roadblock for a batch of radical successful utilizing an exertion similar this. The 2nd you present roadblocks the acquisition becomes scary. It’s conscionable excessively much,” helium added.
“So, successful offering a merchandise successful which users tin bash an contiguous transaction, that magic that we've each had arsenic Bitcoiners tin beryllium brought to the masses.”
Chavarria went connected to stock that Yopaki’s Lightning wallet is truthful casual to usage that adjacent his mother-in-law is present utilizing (and enjoying) the product.
He’s excited to bring specified a merchandise to the Mexican market, because, arsenic helium enactment it, Mexicans “have been rugged” by custodial solutions successful the past.
“It’s important that we fto users cognize that we don’t clasp their funds,” said Chavarria.
Prioritizing Bitcoin Education
Not lone does the Yopaki squad promote and prioritize self-sovereignty, but it besides educates its users astir Bitcoin, arsenic it doesn’t underestimate their curiosity and quality to learn.
“We person curated contented including lessons connected wide topics similar ‘What is money?’ — not conscionable Bitcoin, but money,” explained Chavarria.
“They're micro lessons that instrumentality anyplace from 1 to 2 minutes to complete. At the extremity of the day, it's astir creating a curiosity that I consciousness and I deliberation a batch of america consciousness the bequest strategy has not truly cared about,” helium added.
The acquisition constituent wrong the app besides sets it isolated from its competitors successful the region.
“Bitso is the largest subordinate not conscionable successful Mexico but each of Latin America, and we person a batch of respect for what they've done, but they person turned into a casino with tokens and NFTs and each of that,” shared Chavarria. “We judge they person truly underestimated the curiosity of their users and conscionable triggered the degenerate gambling addiction broadside of things instead.”
Guidance From Wolf
Given however cool, calm and collected Chavarria was erstwhile I spoke with him, I got the content that the present fleshed retired imaginativeness for Yopaki came to him with comparative ease, possibly adjacent successful a flash of light.
But helium told maine otherwise.
Apparently, helium and Chida’s acquisition astatine Wolf’s Bitcoin startup incubator pushed them retired of their comfortableness portion and into a authorities of caput that helped them to marque Yopaki arsenic unsocial arsenic it is.
“It was 1 of the astir important and meaningful experiences we could person gone through,” said Chavarria of his clip astatine Wolf. “The benignant of feedback we received and the benignant of strategy sessions we had were, to accidental it nicely, brutal successful a bully way.”
Chavarria explained however helium and Chida did, successful fact, participate the Wolf programme reasoning they’d already crafted a coagulated imaginativeness for Yopaki, but that the guidance they received successful the programme is what pushed them to make galore of the features that differentiate the apps for others similar it.
“Having radical similar Kelly Brewster (Wolf’s CEO), who has years of acquisition astatine Goldman Sachs, and Ross Stevens (Wolf’s founder) truly beryllium down and inquire the pugnacious questions and propulsion you to the bounds was powerful,” said Chavarria. “They made america truly see ‘Do you recognize that what you're doing is difficult?’ and made america articulate however we were going to execute our plan.”
The Year Ahead
As mentioned, Yopaki volition alteration its Mexican users to statesman investing successful accepted assets successful the coming twelvemonth and, starting adjacent month, it volition connection users a bitcoin exchange, arsenic well.
What is more, it volition contented its users debit cards that they tin usage to walk their pesos, dollars oregon bitcoin. And Chavarria says it plans to connection sats backmost rewards erstwhile users acquisition either accepted assets oregon bitcoin via the app.
With truthful overmuch coming down the pike, Chavarria is successful bully spirits.
“I'm conscionable grateful that we're doing this,” helium said.
“It's been truly amusive to physique successful the carnivore — present the bully times are coming.”
English (US) ·