Neobank Yopaki aims to make every Mexican a Bitcoin user.
Company Name: Yopac
Founder: Francisco Chavarria (CEO) and Carlos Chida (CTO)
Establishment date: March 2023
Headquarters location: Austin, Texas
Number of employees: 4 full time; one part time
Website: https://www.yopaki.com/
Public or private? private
In 2021, Francisco Chavarria stood in the audience at Bitcoin 2021 and watched Strike CEO Jack Mallers deliver an impassioned and now famous keynote speech in which he revealed that El Salvador plans to create a Bitcoin fiat currency.
At that moment, something sparked within Chavarria.
“It was completely different from anything I had ever experienced in my professional career,” Chavarria told Bitcoin Magazine.
“After that, I knew I had to do something in the Bitcoin space. “It was a seed,” he added.
Fast forward two years, and Chavarria put his career as a Software as a Service (SaaS) consultant on hold to write the blueprint for Yopaki, a Bitcoin-focused neobank and investment app that aims to serve people. He is from Mexico, his home country. (Users outside of Mexico can also use Yopaki’s non-custodial Lighting wallet.)
Since then, he and his co-founder Carlos Chida have been working hard to bring Yopaki to life, including participating in Wolf’s Bitcoin Accelerator program in an effort to keep Yopaki cutting-edge and dynamic.
But before we get to that part of the story, let’s start with the cultural origins of the platform’s name.
What’s in a name?
“The name Yopaki comes from Nahuatl, an ancient language spoken by the Aztecs,” Chavarria explained.
“The Aztecs lived in the central region of present-day Mexico and were the builders of some of the largest pyramids in all of Latin America. “The center of this historical site is called Teotihuacán, meaning ‘place of the gods,’” he added.
“If you translate the name itself into English, the closest meaning is ‘pursuit of happiness.’”
From the name alone, it’s clear that Chavarria sees Yopaki as more than just a business endeavor. He wants to have a profound impact on those who speak Yopaki.
And if he and his team are to succeed in their mission to convert every Mexican into a Bitcoin user, they will need an app that can make that kind of impact.
Dream prediction for Bitcoin in Mexico in 2025 🇲🇽😶🌫️
1. Bitcoin adoption is surging in Mexico.
2. Mexican Bitcoin startups attract global investors. El Salvador’s influence makes Mexico the Latin American leader in Bitcoin innovation.
3. Peso-Bitcoin integration deepens…
— Francisco Chavarria (@FranciscoBTC) December 31, 2024
Bitcoin in the Mexican Context
When Bitcoin is mentioned in the context of Latin America and other developing countries, it is often referred to as a “banking for the unbanked” tool.
But Mexico’s banking system is “quite advanced,” according to Chavarria.
“The infrastructure has been built so that people can access banks,” he explained.
“It may not be the same as the banks in the United States (where Chavarria currently lives), but in Mexico, for example, there are stores like 7/11 called OXXO and they are everywhere. “Anyone can enter OXXO with their ID card and leave with their Visa card and app within 20 minutes,” he added.
“It’s not exactly a bank, but it provides access to payment methods,” he added.
However, Chavarria went on to share that these Visa cards charge high fees.
“They are very predatory in that sense,” he said.
Yopaki therefore offers Mexican users access to three currency accounts: a Mexican peso account, a US dollar account, and a (non-custodial) Bitcoin Lightning wallet. Each of these accounts allows users to transact at lower rates than Visa cards. (In 2025, Yopaki will also allow Mexican users to buy stocks, ETFs, and other securities.)
Chavarria hopes to legitimize Bitcoin in the eyes of users by offering Bitcoin wallets alongside traditional currency accounts. But he also believes Yopaki has work to do to help Mexicans become comfortable using Bitcoin, which is why he and his team are doing what they can to make the process enjoyable.
Making Bitcoin Fun luck
luck It is a favorite pastime of Mexican people. It’s similar to bingo, but images are used instead of numbers.
Chavarria and the Yopaki team incorporated this into their app with a Bitcoin orientation. Concepts and characters such as Lightning Network and Max Keizer appear in Yopaki’s version of the game.
“When people think of Mexico, they think of tequila, tacos and mariachi. luck“Chavarria said.
“There is no negative connotation to the game. Because of this, the feedback we’ve been getting over the last few months has been, ‘Gosh, I didn’t know Bitcoin was fun,’” he added.
Users earn sats by playing Lotería within the app. Once you’ve earned more than 1,000 sats, you can learn within the Yopaki app how to move those sats from where Yopaki manages them to your own.
Yopaki has teamed up with Breez to provide users with a non-custodial Lightning wallet that eliminates the need for users to deal with the hassle of Lightning channel management.
Jo Paki + Breeze
“One of the main reasons we decided to choose Breez was because we knew that Liquid implemented the Nodeless SDK before it was released,” said Chavarria.
“We know that channel management is a fundamental barrier to using applications like this for many people. The moment you introduce obstacles, the experience becomes scary. “It’s too much,” he added.
“So by providing a product that allows users to make transactions instantly, we can bring to the masses the magic we all had as Bitcoin users.”
Chavarria went on to say that Yopaki’s Lightning wallet is so easy to use that her mother-in-law is now using and enjoying the product.
He is excited to introduce such products to the Mexican market. Because, as he said, Mexicans have been “tough” on management solutions in the past.
“It’s important to let users know that we don’t hold their funds,” Chavarria said.
Bitcoin Education Priorities
The Yopaki team educates users about Bitcoin not only because it promotes and prioritizes sovereignty, but also because it does not underestimate users’ curiosity and ability to learn.
“We have curated content, including lectures on a wide range of topics such as ‘What is money?’ — Not just Bitcoin, but also money,” Chavarria explained.
“These are small lessons that take just a minute or two to complete. “At the end of the day, that’s what drives my curiosity and I think a lot of people feel like legacy systems don’t really care,” he added.
Additionally, the educational component within the app sets it apart from competitors in the region.
“Bitso is the biggest player not only in Mexico but throughout Latin America. We have a lot of respect for what they have done, but they have transformed into casinos with tokens and NFTs and things like that,” Chavarria said. “We believe they really underestimated the curiosity of their users and instead triggered the depraved aspects of their gambling addiction.”
wolf guide
Considering how cool, cool, and composed Chavarria was when I spoke with him, I got the impression that the now crystallized vision of Joppaki had come to him with relative ease, even in flashes.
But he told me differently.
Clearly, he and Chida’s experience at Wolf’s Bitcoin startup incubator pushed them out of their comfort zone and into a state of mind that helps make Yopaki unique.
“It was one of the most important and meaningful experiences we could have had,” Chavarria said of his time at Wolf. “The type of feedback we received and the type of strategy sessions we had were brutal, to put it mildly.”
Chavarria explained that although he and Chida actually entered the Wolf program thinking they already had a solid vision for Yopaki, the guidance they received from the program led them to create many of the features that set the app apart. For other people who like it.
“It was powerful to have people like Kelly Brewster (CEO of Wolf) and Ross Stevens (founder of Wolf), who had years of experience at Goldman Sachs, really sit down and ask the hard questions and push them to the limits,” Chavarria said. “They made us really think, ‘Do you know what you’re doing is difficult?’ And we clearly explained how we would execute our plan.”
year ahead
As previously mentioned, Yopaki will allow Mexican users to invest in traditional assets next year, and will also offer users a Bitcoin exchange starting next month.
It will also issue users with a debit card that can be used to spend pesos, dollars or bitcoins. And Chavarria said he plans to offer rewards when users purchase traditional assets or Bitcoin through the app.
With the pike coming down so many times, Chavarria feels good.
“I’m just grateful that we’re doing this,” he said.
“It was a lot of fun making the bear. Good times are ahead.”
