Littio Enables Access To U.S. Treasury Bills Through Crypto Products

According to CoinDesk, Colombian neobank Littio is facilitating customer access to U.S. Treasury bills via crypto products. The bank is transitioning its vault holdings from Ethereum (ETH) to Avalanche (AVAX) to scale its offerings, known as Yield Pots, which allow users to earn interest on their U.S. dollar deposits. This shift is driven by growing demand for Yield Pots, with Avalanche's low transaction fees and consistency cited as key factors for the change. Littio's partnership with OpenTrade, a London-based firm, enables exposure to Yield Pots. OpenTrade develops yield-bearing products using stablecoins and real-world assets like U.S. Treasury bills. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain parity with government-issued currencies, typically the U.S. dollar. Real-world assets refer to assets outside the crypto ecosystem, such as real estate, represented on-chain as digital tokens. Jeff Handler, chief commercial officer at OpenTrade, noted that Littio is currently the only Latin American neobank using their vaults, with more clients expected to offer various USDC-based fintech services this year. These clients include neobanks, centralized exchanges, and payment companies already utilizing USDC to meet the demand for USD bank accounts, payments, and services across Latin America. Since its launch in February, Littio's Yield Pots have achieved over $80 million in transaction volume and generated $250,000 in returns for users in the past four months. Littio reinvests between $11 million and $13 million in OpenTrade vaults monthly. For comparison, Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund, which similarly provides exposure to U.S. Treasuries, has amassed $435 million in assets since 2021. The yield from Littio's vaults ranges between 2% and 5%, according to the company's website. The product's appeal is understandable, given the significant depreciation of the Colombian peso against the U.S. dollar over the past decade. Other Latin American currencies also face severe inflation, making the U.S. dollar an attractive alternative. Additionally, Littio customers may encounter currency restrictions or lack access to traditional banking services, further incentivizing them to use Littio. Morgan Krupetsky, head of institutions and capital markets at Ava Labs, which develops the Avalanche blockchain, highlighted that Littio and OpenTrade demonstrate how Avalanche's technology can provide underbanked populations with access to products and services otherwise unavailable through traditional financial systems.