Strike Expands Lightning-Powered Cross-Border Payments to Mexico

Digital payments firm Strike is expanding its Lightning Network-based cross-border payments service to Mexico, the largest market for remittances from the U.S., which accounts for around 95% of total remittances received by Mexicans from abroad, according to the company.

The service, Send Globally, will be available in Mexico starting June 14, according to a press release provided to CoinDesk. It runs on the Lightning Network, a second layer payment system for the Bitcoin blockchain designed to provide cheaper and faster transactions than the base network. U.S. dollars sent across the border using the service can be received as pesos in the recipient’s bank account, the release states.

Just last week, Strike CEO and co-founder Jack Mallers said the company had ditched third party service providers and moved custody operations in-house. The new service bolsters its presence in Latin America less than a month after it established a headquarters for its global arm in El Salvador and said it expanded to over 65 countries.

“Strike’s expansion to Mexico brings a better alternative to 12 million Mexican Americans,” the release said, underscoring the plight of an ever-growing number of Mexican migrants in the U.S. who are plagued by “high fees, slow settlement, and lack of innovation in incumbent cross-border payments services.”