Kustodia launches sensible contract escrow to deal with Latin America’s $600 million fraud disaster

Mexico’s first peso-denominated blockchain escrow goes stay on SPEI for high-value P2P transactions.

Mexico Metropolis, April 29, 2026 — Kustodia, a programmable escrow platform for Latin America’s high-ticket economies, in the present day introduced the overall availability of its sensible contract escrow service in Mexico. Consumers and sellers can now safe the whole lot from used automobiles to actual property deposits to B2B contracts utilizing SPEI, Mexico’s immediate fee railroad. Funds are held in audited sensible contracts till each events affirm supply, with out the involvement of human intermediaries.

In accordance with Juniper Analysis, fee fraud will price the worldwide financial system $44.3 billion in 2024. Latin America has the very best fraud charge on the earth, with 20% of service provider income misplaced annually. In accordance with information from Cloudflare and Mexico Enterprise Information, in Mexico, every greenback of fraud prices $4.08 in complete financial harm, which equates to roughly $600 million in annual losses.

“In 2021, we misplaced cash to fraud in peer-to-peer transactions,” mentioned Kustodia founder and CEO Rodrigo Jimenez. “I spent three years constructing the infrastructure that ought to exist. Mexico’s $60 billion used automotive market operates nearly fully on stranger-to-stranger transactions, with no protections on both facet. We have modified that.”

The way it works — no app or encryption data required

Kustodia works fully by way of SPEI and WhatsApp. Consumers deposit pesos into a novel account quantity generated by Kustodia. These pesos will instantly be locked into a sensible contract on the Arbitrum blockchain, making it unimaginable for both get together to entry them. Delivered by vendor. Each events confirmed. Funds are transferred to the vendor’s checking account in pesos. Blockchain works invisibly. Customers solely work together by way of WhatsApp.

The platform makes use of MXNB, a 1:1 Mexican Peso-backed stablecoin issued by Juno and audited by a Huge 4 accounting agency, as its escrow settlement layer. This implies customers can ship and obtain pesos with out experiencing the value fluctuations of cryptocurrencies. All accomplished transactions are publicly verifiable on Arbitrum’s blockchain explorer without spending a dime to everybody.

Customers don’t pay any blockchain charges. Kustodia robotically absorbs and lumps these prices collectively, so the one charges customers see are escrow charges. 3% for normal transactions and decrease for quantity companions. In comparison with conventional escrow brokers that cost 3-6% commissions and take 5-7 days to shut, Kustodia closes nearly immediately.

From used automobiles to actual property to AI brokers

Kustodia’s preliminary focus is on the Mexican used automotive market, the place the common transaction worth is USD 15,000 and the chance of fraud is highest. The platform consists of built-in automobile historical past verification powered by Truora, KYC ID checks, and webhook-based notifications for market integration.

The platform additionally helps AI brokers by way of a devoted agent infrastructure positioned at kustodia.app/ai-agents, permitting autonomous techniques to programmatically create and handle escrow agreements. Web3 Native Escrow is offered at kustodia.app/web3 and helps USDC and MXNB on Arbitrum and Injective.

Actual property rental deposits, crowdfunding and market integration are further areas in operation. USD Wire is supported for cross-border transactions from the US to Mexico. Brazilian Actual (BRL) through Pix is ​​in growth for the corporate’s deliberate Brazil enlargement in 2027.

Supply: Custodia

Constructed for builders and platforms

Kustodia offers a whole API and webhook system for market integration. Builders can view documentation and check the platform at kustodia.app/demo/market. The platform at the moment works with SPEI, USD Wire, and USDC, and compares favorably with MercadoPago and Stripe Mexico, neither of which supply true escrow, blockchain verification, or built-in automobile inspection.

Supply: Custodia

About Custodia

Kustodia is a programmable escrow infrastructure for Latin America and rising markets. The platform makes use of SPEI and USD Wire as authorized rails and sensible contracts from Arbitrum and Injective to safe high-value transactions throughout automobiles, actual property, companies, and crowdfunding. Obtainable at kustodia.app.

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