MIAMI — In the glass towers of Brickell, in Doral offices, and in Medley’s warehouses, a monetary revolution is unfolding that major financial media have barely begun to grasp. As the global crypto ecosystem pushes toward a sky-high valuation of USD 4 trillion—roughly the size of Germany’s GDP—Miami has risen as the undisputed epicenter of a transformation that is rewriting the rules of international trade: the ascent of stablecoins as alternative financial infrastructure.
The silent revolution redefining trade with Latin America
This isn’t about Bitcoin speculation or multi-million NFT benders. This is real economics: tangible trade flows, SMBs preserving operating margins through technology that finally delivers what traditional banking never could offer the Miami-Latin America corridor—instant speed, near-zero marginal costs, and protection against currency volatility that has historically bedeviled hemispheric trade.
-
Stablecoins—dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies that blend fiat stability with blockchain speed—are executing what economists term “massive financial disintermediation.” An importer in Doral who previously waited 5–7 business days and paid 3–7% in transfer fees to move USD 50,000 to a supplier in Medellín can now execute the transfer in 2 minutes at costs below 0.5%.
-
This isn’t theoretical disruption: it’s operational arbitrage that makes the difference between profitability and bankruptcy for thousands of Latin American SMEs operating from South Florida.
-
Shield, a neobank founded by visionaries who understood that the next financial frontier wouldn’t be in Manhattan but along the I-95 corridor between Downtown Miami and Aventura, is enabling small and medium-sized businesses—the backbone of the Latin diaspora—to access this infrastructure previously reserved for treasury departments at large institutions.
Its clients operate in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, and Uruguay—the very markets where monetary instability, currency controls, and inefficient banking systems have turned international transactions into Kafkaesque ordeals that consume working capital, executive time, and commercial opportunities.
-
Florida’s GENIUS Act (Florida’s Digital Bill of Rights), a pioneering law positioning the state as the most crypto-friendly in the United States, has functioned as a regulatory accelerant, providing legal certainty to operations that previously navigated murky regulatory waters. Miami doesn’t merely compete with Silicon Valley or New York; it competes head-to-head with Singapore, Zurich, and London to become the global capital of digital finance.
What’s driving this meteoric adoption? How are firms navigating regulatory headwinds? What are the implications for the future of the dollar as the hemispheric reserve currency? Are we witnessing the birth of a parallel financial system that will eventually absorb functions from the traditional system?
-
To answer these pivotal questions, Infonegocios Miami spoke exclusively with Luis Carchi, cofounder of Shield—one of the architects of this quiet revolution redefining trade between South Florida and Latin America. His frontline perspective offers a singular view of a transformation economists will study for decades as a paradigm of disruptive innovation applied.
What follows is more than an interview: a snapshot of a financial future that has already arrived, narrated by those building it transaction by transaction, client by client, blockchain by blockchain.
-
Carchi’s responses reveal not only how stablecoins work technically, but also why they signify nothing less than the democratization of access to world-class financial infrastructure for Latin American business that has made Miami an indispensable bridge between two Americas.
-IN MIAMI (Maurizio): “Luis, beyond the generic cost-savings chatter, can you break down with concrete numbers how much a Miami SME saves specifically by using Shield versus traditional methods? For example, if a Brickell-based technology exporter needs to pay USD 50,000 to a supplier in Argentina monthly, what’s the dollar difference between using your platform, a traditional SWIFT transfer, and alternatives like Western Union or PayPal? And how does that savings hold up in high currency volatility scenarios like Argentina now or the historic peso devaluation?”
-Luis Carchi (Shield): Western Union doesn’t permit sending USD 50,000 due to limits, and PayPal can’t be used in Argentina to withdraw Argentinian pesos. But to answer the question we can compare to published data. With Shield, USD-to-USDT conversion costs 0.5%, leaving 49,750 USDT. Today, USDT sells for about ARS 1,510 in Argentina, implying receipt of ARS 75,122,500. The dollar trades at around ARS 1,465 via Western Union and incurs additional fees that rise with the amount. With Western Union you’d get ARS 72,883,750; a roughly 3% delta. SWIFT charges USD 15–50 plus a 2.5–3.5% FX markup, and PayPal charges around 2.99% + 1.5% for international transfers + roughly 4% FX markup (7–8% total). Volatility can create a premium on USDT in inflationary contexts, impacting all services. The bottom line is you can’t simply send USD 50,000 via PayPal or Western Union for B2B needs; a SWIFT transfer remains costlier. Shield savings can be 3% or higher depending on the country.
-IN MIAMI (Taylor): “GENIUS is a milestone, but it sits within a broader U.S. federal regulatory landscape that is still debating crypto-asset classification. At the same time, countries like Argentina impose strict currency controls, and others like Brazil are developing their own CBDC (Real Digital). How does Shield navigate this multi-layer regulatory maze? What level of AML/KYC compliance do you implement? And the CFO question of the hour: if the SEC or FinCEN takes enforcement action tomorrow, what concrete assurances do Shield clients have regarding operational continuity and fund protection?”
-Luis Carchi (Shield): Each region has its own regulations. The U.S. has GENIUS, Brazil has BVAL, and Europe has MiCA. While the U.S. has advanced, there remains room to clarify the status of cryptocurrencies. Some countries have yet to finalize regulations. What is clear is that these are financial instruments, and compliance with local financial regulations is mandatory. Shield operates with a stricter compliance program than a bank. We verify beneficiaries, capture identity docs, screen against OFAC lists, require business domicile proofs, invoices, and more. We monitor blockchain payments in and out. In the U.S., we work with FDIC-insured banks and carry Lloyd’s of London private insurance up to USD 1 million per transaction.
-IN MIAMI (Maurizio): “Stablecoins solve the ‘last mile’ of international trade: converting USDC or USDT into ARS, BRL, or PEN that a local supplier can use to pay staff or services. What liquidity network does Shield run in each market? Do you partner with local exchanges, run your own market makers, or use DeFi protocols? Because one thing is to own stablecoins; a textile manufacturer in Lima paying payroll on a Friday is another. What’s your country-by-country settlement time, and what happens in a ‘bank run’ on a partner exchange, as seen with FTX?”
-Luis Carchi (Shield): In each country we use local commercial exchanges. Our compliance team evaluates regulatory compliance, local financial reputation, and solvency before we operate. Transactions typically settle within a few hours. Shield reduces financial risk by working with the largest, most reputable exchanges in each country.
-IN MIAMI (Taylor): “Everyone talks about cross-border payments, but what has been Shield’s most unexpected or innovative use case? Are companies using stablecoins for currency hedging? Inventory financing or international factoring? Any case where the speed of blockchain settlement determined whether a deal closed or was lost? And with nearshoring booming in Mexico and Central America, are you seeing traction with firms relocating operations and needing payrolls paid across multiple countries?”
-Luis Carchi (Shield): The most recurring use case is international business paying invoices to suppliers in the United States. Merchandise prices move daily, and traditional banking can’t match the speed of USDT, which can settle in a matter of hours. The world wants dollars, and there’s no need to convince anyone about dollarization; USDT has been widely adopted abroad to protect capital from inflation and high banking costs. International businesses see USDT as a cheaper, more efficient way to spend abroad.
-IN MIAMI (Maurizio): “Luis, Shield sits at the epicenter of two megatrends: the tokenization of traditional finance and the reshoring/nearshoring of Latin American trade to Miami. Looking ahead 3–5 years, what’s your vision for the evolution of this ecosystem? Do you see a future where traditional banks like Chase or Bank of America offer similar services? How does Shield position itself against the inevitable entry of fintech giants like Stripe or Square into the crypto B2B space? And the million-dollar question: are you exploring VC fundraising, and what Total Addressable Market (TAM) have you identified for your sector-specific?”
-Luis Carchi (Shield): We see USDT adoption in American businesses growing much more. Only innovative businesses are using it today, but there will come a time when it becomes commonplace. We believe we have an edge over players just entering the space because of our time in the market. Still, we must remain the perfect solution for our clients and continue improving our services. We also collaborate with major players like Stripe. Shield recently closed a USD $5 billion round on top of our seed round of USD $2 billion. We believe the TAM is in the multi-trillions.
-IN MIAMI (Taylor): “Beyond the numbers, what has been the customer story that has personally moved you the most? That moment when you said, ‘this is why we built Shield’.” There’s a big reality Infonegocios observes: Miami is a magnet for investment, but it doesn’t usually invest much abroad—the water doesn’t flow to rivers, they say; it’s the reverse. Tell us why you think many companies get confused trying to sell to Miami to attract investment in LatAm products or services, when today companies should be selling and delivering their services to be in Miami. What can you add to this reflection?
-Luis Carchi (Shield): Our typical client isn’t buying in Miami; it’s an American company selling to Latin America. It makes me proud to see how we’re helping mid-sized companies grow and increase sales with Shield. Many clients have told me, “Luis, we were losing a lot of deals because we didn’t know how to use USDT, and now we can.”
A great team for a great mission:
Brothers Emmanuel and Isaiah Udotong, together with their long-time best friend, Luis Carchi, are first-generation Nigerian- and Ecuadorian-American founders with backgrounds at MIT, Princeton, McKinsey, Facebook, and Y Combinator. Together we are building the future of banking for global trade. After two years of development in the crypto space and hands-on export experience across four continents, we launched Shield: the first stablecoin‑driven neobank designed specifically for international trade businesses.
Emmanuel Udotong, CEO
Emmanuel is a Princeton graduate with prior experience at McKinsey and Pinterest. While at McKinsey, he led risk and control framework implementations in a U.S. bank with over USD 200 billion in assets under management, and managed cross-continental development projects with multilateral banks. At Shield, he leads strategic partnerships, regulatory compliance, and fundraising, leveraging his global experience to build a trusted platform for cross-border trade.
Luis Carchi, CTO
Luis is a Princeton alum who spent three years in Facebook’s product team. Raised in the U.S. but of Ecuadorian origin, he ran a consumer electronics import business from the U.S. to Ecuador while at Facebook, giving him first-hand insight into Shield’s target market. At Shield, he leads product and engineering, and also oversees sales across Latin America and the electronics sector.
Isaiah Udotong, COO
Isaiah is an MIT graduate and former Facebook engineer. He previously co-founded an agricultural supply-chain company that grew to USD 10 million in annual recurring revenue and moved thousands of tons of raw materials, refined products, and machinery across four continents.
At Shield, he guides operations, manages the Miami office, and drives initiatives that improve scalability and profitability.
Read Smart, Be Smarter!
Follow for more analysis: @InfonegociosMiami
Infonegocios Miami: a publication written by the Anglolatina business community.
https://infonegocios.miami/suscribite-al-newsletter
Contact: Marcelo.Maurizio@gmail.com
Infonegocios NETWORK: 4.5 million Anglo‑Latinos united by a passion for business.
Join us and stay informed.
Infonegocios Miami—Economic, Cultural, and Business Intelligence with a Global Lens
Follow for more analysis: @InfonegociosMiami
© 2025 Infonegocios Miami.