Mandioca.global cuts Latin American trade settlement to minutes

Mandioca.global settles import-export payments for Latin American trade corridors using U.S. dollar stablecoins, with most transactions processed on the same day. The company reports average settlement times of about five minutes for RTP payments, roughly 35 minutes for U.S. wire conversions and about one hour for transfers into China. Mandioca says it has processed more than $1 billion in volume and handles over 15,000 transactions a year.

The company was founded by Leandro Meneses, who previously worked in corporate finance and later at Prime Trust. Meneses named the firm after mandioca, or cassava, a crop historically traded across South America. He built the business on the premise that stablecoins could shorten settlement times and ease dollar access for cross-border trade.

Mandioca focuses on importers and exporters that need faster access to U.S. dollar liquidity and fewer operational steps. Most client flows settle in dollar-denominated stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, and the firm reports limited market demand for local-currency stablecoins in many Latin American markets. Meneses noted, “The currency of global trade is still the U.S. dollar.”

The company restricts its customer base to product-focused businesses where documentation can be verified. Mandioca requires invoices, bills of lading and shipping records and uses transaction monitoring that links wallet behavior to trade documentation. Meneses described instances where declared activity did not match trade records, such as companies reporting footwear imports while customs data showed machinery exports. “What we really sell is trust,” he added.

Mandioca maintains a DASP presence in El Salvador and is pursuing an MSO license in Hong Kong. It operates offices in Madrid, New York, Hong Kong, Colombia and El Salvador. The firm also works with banking partners, including Lead Bank, Circle-linked partners and DBS, to convert stablecoin liquidity back into fiat rails. Meneses pointed to Bolivia as a market where dollar scarcity is encouraging stablecoin adoption by businesses and banks.

The company is building products beyond B2B settlements, including remittances, prepaid-card transfers and payroll payouts aimed at Latin American immigrants in the U.S. and Europe. Mandioca is exploring trade finance and factoring partnerships in Colombia and is evaluating options for low-risk yield on temporary stablecoin balances, while noting regulatory uncertainty for yield products in the United States.

Meneses said most clients treat stablecoins as an unseen settlement layer whose value lies in faster clearance, lower foreign-exchange friction and reliable access to dollar liquidity. He described Mandioca’s compliance framework as focused on on-chain analytics and trade verification rather than applying traditional banking closures at the first sign of risk.