Dash’s presence in Latin America has risen sharply, with an additional 62 new businesses added in Venezuela alone over the past week.

Venezuela garnered global attention last week for its overwhelming acceptance of Dash among merchants, constituting more than all other cryptocurrency businesses in the country combined, and possibly ranking Caracas as the de facto cryptocurrency capital of the world. At that time, a reported 522 merchants in the country accepted Dash as payment, according to merchant listing site DiscoverDash. Since then, the reported number has risen to 584, representing 62 additional businesses added over the past week alone.

Venezuela’s merchant adoption program going strong despite tight funding

The strong merchant presence in Venezuela can be attributed to the persistent efforts of a Dash-funded merchant adoption team. According to business development head for Dash Venezuela Alejandro Echeverría, the sheer number of merchants accepting Dash has reached a tipping point where the rate of adoption is increasing:

“Thanks to the work done by Dash Merchant Venezuela, we have important merchants every week like Subway, Juanchis Burger (national franchise) and others. This create a lot of confidence to other merchants and they took the iniciative to affiliate in DiscoverDash.com by theirselves. We make the initial big push and we will keep doing our job, affiliating merchants massively and this will help other merchants gain truts in Dash. So the adoption will be faster and deeper each month.”

Most notably, several major international chains in the country have picked up on Dash payments, including Calvin Klein and fast food chain Subway:

However, due to the bear market currently affecting cryptocurrency, Dash’s treasury of available funding for projects is limited in its total valuation, leading to some challenges in funding all the various projects under the ecosystem, including Venezuelan efforts. Echeverría sees the merchant program to be properly funded for the moment, but has concerns for other Venezuelan Dash projects:

“With Dash Merchant Venezuela we still have funds to operate and provide results. The problem is with Dash Help Support Venezuela, we need funds to keep operations running, we are thinking to make a donations campaign if we dont pass.”

Dash spreading to other Latin American countries, including Colombia and Panama

While the most dramatic increase in Dash adoption has unequivocally been in Venezuela, other Latin American countries have shown significant progress as well. Panama currently lists 17 Dash-accepting businesses on DiscoverDash. Colombia lists seven at the moment, but is home to a concentrated adoption effort:

Other countries with small adoption gains are Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. While Venezuela becomes a dominant cryptocurrency hotspot in the region, other neighboring countries may seek to follow its example.