Roger Gabriel Benites Quijano: A Peruvian Fintech Pioneer in Crypto and Beyond

Early Vision: Cryptocurrency as a Bridge for Remittances

In late 2013, Roger Gabriel Benites Quijano set out to solve a pressing problem in Latin America’s financial landscape: the high cost and friction of cross-border money transfers. He decided to create Bitinka, a fintech platform aimed at breaking currency exchange barriers using a tool not yet seen in the region – cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchangefile-4ehjqjnjmpm4fbqbrxniub. The idea was bold and simple: someone in one country could buy Bitcoin with their local money, send it to a relative abroad, and that relative could instantly convert it to their local currency on Bitinka – achieving near-instant remittances without traditional forex feesfile-q3euy6b8drwfqffizxwlpv. By December 2014, Benites debuted Bitinka’s exchange platform at the LaBitConf conference in Rio de Janeiro, presenting Bitcoin as a bridge currency for everyday people across bordersfile-4ehjqjnjmpm4fbqbrxniub. This early vision tapped into Benites’ own experience as an immigrant entrepreneur from Peru who recognized how blockchain technology could connect financially underserved communities across nations.

Building a Pan-Latin American Crypto Platform

Turning this vision into reality was an uphill journey. Benites initially bootstrapped development by hiring a small remote programming team and even investing his personal funds to acquire cryptocurrencies for testingfile4ehjqjnjmpm4fbqbrxniub. In 2015, he relocated operations to Caracas, Venezuela – an unconventional move that took advantage of lower costs amid Venezuela’s economic crisisfile-q3euy6b8drwfqffizxwlpv. There, Bitinka established its first offices and hired local staff, positioning itself to serve Venezuelans facing currency controls and hyperinflation. Within months, users from Brazil and story 1 Venezuela were flocking to the platform for its crypto-powered remittance servicefile-q3euy6b8drwfqffizxwlpv. To keep up with demand and local regulations, Benites embarked on a whirlwind tour of Latin America: setting up banking partnerships and support teams in countries like Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. By mid-2016, this one-man expansion campaign had given Bitinka a truly regional footprint, with corporate entities and bank accounts in multiple nations to facilitate seamless transactions. Benites even ventured into cryptocurrency mining to support the business – partnering with a major global mining firm in 2016 to build a data center with over 2,000 mining machines, leveraging Venezuela’s low electricity costsfile-q3euy6b8drwfqffizxwlpv. This mining operation – later expanded to one of the largest in Latin America with 5,000 machinesfile-q3euy6b8drwfqffizxwlpv – provided a revenue stream to fund Bitinka’s growth and technology development.

Innovation and Growth: Bitinka & InkaPay

As Bitinka’s user base grew, Benites formalized the venture’s structure and broadened its services. In May 2016, he established Bitinka Limited as a holding company in Hong Kong – a jurisdiction chosen to support a global vision for the businesscryptonews.net. Although Bitinka remained 100% Peruvian-owned, having a Hong Kong base signaled its international ambitionscryptonews.net. Under this umbrella, the company ran two interconnected platforms: the Bitinka crypto exchange and InkaPay, a blockchain-powered payment gateway dedicated to remittances and everyday transactionscryptonews.net. (The use of “Inka” in both names was intentional, to celebrate their Peruvian roots as a unique selling pointelcomercio.pe.) Benites described the mission succinctly: “The idea is for ordinary citizens to make international payments in the currency of their choice... Or send remittances quickly and easily,” all with fees low enough to serve small businesses and individualscryptonews.net. By using blockchain to cut out intermediaries, Bitinka and InkaPay collapsed the many steps of a typical wire transfer into a single, secure transaction, ensuring traceability and speedelcomercio.pe. Fuelled by this vision, Bitinka achieved milestones rare for a Latin American startup. It secured a seed investment of $1.25 million (paid in Bitcoin) in mid-2016 – one of the region’s first significant crypto-funded venture roundsfile4ehjqjnjmpm4fbqbrxniub. That influx of capital was devoted to ramping up the story 2 platform’s technology and launching InkaPay’s services. In late 2016, Benites unveiled InkaPay to the public, inviting attendees at Buenos Aires’ LaBitConf event to witness how blockchain could make everyday payments instant. Around the same time, political turmoil in Venezuela was worsening; fearing for the safety of his Caracas team amid social unrest and anti-crypto sentiment, Benites arranged to relocate about 16 key Venezuelan employees (and their families) to offices in Argentinafile-q3euy6b8drwfqffizxwlpv. It was a humane move to protect the people who had helped build his company, and it underscored Bitinka’s truly borderless nature – by 2017 the startup’s workforce was spread across multiple countries, united by the goal of financial innovation.

Expansion Across Latin America and Beyond

In just a few years, Bitinka grew from a small Peruvian project into a pan-Latin American network. By mid-2017, the platform was operating in 18 countries, handling roughly 15,000 transactions per day – about US$1 million daily volume (~$460 million per year)elcomercio.pe. What began in late 2014 with just 20 staff executing a handful of daily trades had swelled to 85 employees and a bustling marketplace by 2017elcomercio.pe. This rapid growth was driven by Latin Americans’ hunger for alternatives to costly banks and money transmitters. Bitinka’s presence spread from the Andes to the Southern Cone, with new offices opening in Mexico, Brazil, Spain and plans for Paraguay – even as Venezuela, where crypto was a lifeline amid inflation, remained its single largest user baseelcomercio.pe. Benites was unapologetic about targeting the masses. He famously quipped that his goal was to be the “Kola Real” of fintech – a reference to a popular Peruvian discount soda – by offering financial services at ultra-low prices to undercut bigger competitorselcomercio.pe. Indeed, Bitinka’s commission was just 0.5% per transaction, versus the double-digit percentages charged by some traditional remittance providers in the regionelcomercio.pe. This mass-market strategy, he believed, could unlock a huge base of users who were previously priced out of international transfers and cryptocurrency trading. By the end of 2017, the company aimed to reach 120 employees and was eyeing a valuation of $500 million within five yearselcomercio.pe – ambitious goals that reflected its outsized early traction. Media outlets began to recognize Bitinka as an emblem of Latin America’s fintech potential. In Peru, it was touted as the country’s first company built on blockchain technology and held up as evidence that local innovation can thrive despite challengeselcomercio.peelcomercio.pe. At one point in late 2017, during Bitcoin’s global price spike, Bitinka’s trading volume briefly ranked among the top 40 crypto exchanges worldwide, and the platform was reportedly the only Latin American exchange in that elite cohortelcomercio.pe. “This is only the tip of the iceberg... this is just beginning,” Benites said around that time, noting that cryptocurrency adoption – though surging – was still minimal compared to traditional financeelcomercio.pe. Bitinka reported 300% growth in its user base and revenues in 2017 aloneelcomercio.pe, and despite Bitcoin’s notorious volatility, the startup maintained steady expansion plans into 2018. Local political instability even played a role in adoption; when Peru experienced government turmoil and a spike in the U.S. dollar, Bitinka saw extra demand as people sought refuge in digital assetselcomercio.pe. Through it all, Benites kept reinvesting in platform improvements and geographic expansion, convinced that Bitinka’s model could bring affordable financial services to millions of unbanked or underbanked consumers.

Bringing Crypto to the Mainstream

One of Roger Benites’s hallmark achievements was pushing cryptocurrency beyond online trading and into everyday commerce. In November 2017, Bitinka’s payments arm InkaPay launched a crypto-backed debit card in partnership with the Visa network, a breakthrough that garnered international press. Unveiled in Argentina, this prepaid card allowed users to spend their Bitcoin (and several other digital coins) at any store with a Visa point-of-sale terminal, while merchants received payment in their local fiat currencyiprofesional.com. “The debit card will work like any other bank’s – you could use it in any shop with a POS. The user is charged in cryptocurrency, but the seller receives pesos,” Benites explained of the conceptiprofesional.com. The card was multi-currency on both sides: it supported four cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum) and was interoperable with an array of Latin American fiat currencies including soles, bolivianos, Argentine pesos, Colombian and Chilean pesos, Brazilian reals, as well as U.S. dollars, euros, and even Chinese yuaniprofesional.com. In practice, an Argentine user could load the card by depositing Argentine pesos on Bitinka’s story 4 platform, which would instantly convert to, say, Litecoin, and then spend those funds in USD abroad – all in one swipe with instant conversioniprofesional.com. This innovation effectively blended the crypto exchange with a traditional banking convenience, making Bitinka’s services tangible in daily life. InkaPay didn’t stop there. Benites’ team began rolling out physical “reload” points – places where people could walk up and top-off their crypto balances or cards with cash. By the end of 2017, the company planned to have 30 such points active across Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Panama, aiming for 110 by early 2018iprofesional.com. The strategy was to merge the digital and physical worlds, allowing even those without tech savvy to participate in the crypto economy. It was also a way to build trust and familiarity, by having a human touchpoint for what was still a very new concept to most consumers. These efforts, along with the user-friendly mobile app and an instant-buy portal, positioned Bitinka as one of the most accessible crypto-financial services in the region. While global giants focused on trading speculation, Benites concentrated on practical use cases— remittances, payments, and everyday banking—years before “financial inclusion” became a buzzword in crypto circles.

Navigating an Unregulated Frontier

Operating such a novel business in Latin America meant grappling with unclear regulations and skeptical authorities. As a pioneer, Benites took a proactive stance on compliance and security to legitimize his company’s activities. Bitinka’s platforms required users to be fully verified and tied to bank accounts in their country of origin, a measure designed explicitly “to avoid being used for illicit activities” through anonymous transactionscryptonews.net. By implementing strict Know-Your-Customer (KYC) checks and cooperating with banks, Bitinka differentiated itself from the wild-west image of many early crypto exchanges. “The payment system is only available to properly identified individuals or entities that have a bank account in the country of origin,” Benites noted, emphasizing traceability and trust in every cross-border dealcryptonews.net. In Peru, where fintechs were not yet regulated, Bitinka nevertheless worked hand-in-hand with the central bank and the Superintendence of Banking and Insurance to establish quality and security standards for its operationsgestion.pe. This collaborative approach helped ease authorities into the idea that blockchain technology could be an ally rather than a threat to financial stability. story 5 Benites also became a public advocate for smart regulation in the industry. He has spoken at major conferences – from the Latin American Bitcoin Conference to fintech forums in Europe – sharing Bitinka’s story and pushing for clearer rules on innovations like initial coin offerings. He argued that while many ICOs circa 2017 were essentially scams, the underlying method of fundraising could be revolutionary if proper legal frameworks were in placeissuewire.com. His prominence grew alongside his company’s. By 2018, Roger Benites was being recognized among Latin America’s notable blockchain figures, often sought for commentary on developments such as Venezuela’s state-issued cryptocurrency experimentcointelegraph.com. Throughout this rise, however, he had to contend with the inevitable challenges facing any crypto startup handling people’s money – from volatile market swings to occasional scrutiny over customer complaints. In those challenging moments, Benites has stood by the record that he has never been convicted of fraud or financial wrongdoing. Despite the “grey zone” in which crypto ventures operated, no court has ever found him guilty of estafa (fraud), a fact he underscores as proof of Bitinka’s good-faith conduct and his own commitment to operating above board.

Transition to Advisor and New Ventures

After several intense years at the helm of Bitinka, Benites began transitioning from day-to-day operations into more of a strategic and advisory role. By the late 2010s, with Bitinka’s brand firmly established, he set his sights on helping other fintech startups replicate that success. He founded a new venture (based partly in the United Arab Emirates) focused on providing white-label infrastructure – essentially offering companies the back-end technology to launch their own digital banks, crypto exchanges or payment networks, without starting from scratch. This move toward white-label solutions was a response to growing demand in emerging markets for ready-made fintech platformsrogerbenitesentrepreneur.wordpress.com. Rather than directly competing as a consumer exchange, Benites’s new company would power other financial institutions behind the scenes, much like a “fintech for fintechs.” At the same time, Roger Benites took on formal and informal roles advising multiple fintech and neobank projects. In Latin America, he has sat on advisory boards – including ventures linked to his own alma mater brand “Inka” – and mentored young entrepreneurs on navigating the region’s complex regulatory and story 6 market conditions rogerbenitesentrepreneur.wordpress.com. He also began acting as a bridge between Latin America and the Middle East’s burgeoning fintech scene. Now splitting time between Lima and Dubai, Benites helps foreign fintech companies craft “soft-landing” strategies to enter Latin American markets, guiding them on everything from compliance partnerships to cultural adaptation. Conversely, he offers Latin American startups insights into expanding abroad, including to fintech-friendly hubs like the UAE. This bicontinental perspective makes him a valuable consultant for any financial innovator looking to globalize their product. Though he no longer needs to pull all-nighters keeping an exchange online, Benites remains every bit the blockchain evangelist. He frequently speaks about a future where blockchain is as ubiquitous as the internet, comparing the current state of crypto to the dawn of the credit card era – a time when few could imagine how global and routine electronic payments would becomeissuewire.com. In his view, technologies evolve in cycles, and something even more transformative may eventually supersede blockchain – but for now, he’s dedicated to pushing this revolution as far as it can go.

Legacy of a Latin American Crypto Trailblazer

Roger Gabriel Benites Quijano’s journey from a young Peruvian entrepreneur with a radical idea, to the CEO of one of Latin America’s first multi-country crypto exchanges, and now to a cross-border fintech advisor, reads like a case study in innovation and resilience. He built Bitinka from scratch and gave Latin Americans a homegrown platform to trade currencies and send money in a new way – faster, cheaper, and on their own terms. Under his leadership, Bitinka and InkaPay introduced thousands of people to cryptocurrency, drove down the cost of remittances, and even put crypto debit cards into shoppers’ hands years before mainstream banks caught oniprofesional.comiprofesional.com. He achieved all this while navigating the uncertainties of an unregulated industry, expanding across continents, and weathering the booms and busts that come with any disruptive technology. Crucially, Benites has also shown that Latin American startups can blaze a trail in fintech. By 2021, Peru’s Bitinka was cited as a “safe bet” in the blockchain arena, operating in 18 countries and moving $500 million a year in transaction story 7 volumecryptonews.net. Its success story – from a tiny team processing five trades a day to a 90-employee powerhouse with 15,000 daily transactionscryptonews.net – has been held up as an example of the “Peruvian model” of crypto-financial innovationcryptonews.net. And although Bitinka’s holding was offshore, its heart was always Peruvian, with local talent and capital driving it forwardelcomercio.pe. Benites’s personal saga as an immigrant founder reflects this global-local duality: he leveraged international connections and jurisdictions to build a globally scalable business, all while empowering users back home and across Latin America. Now in his mid-30s, Roger Benites stands at a new juncture of his career. Free from the daily pressures of running an exchange, he focuses on thought leadership and mentorship, helping shape the next generation of fintech disruptors. He has never lost sight of the original mission – using technology to break down financial barriers – and continues to advocate for accessible, inclusive financial services. “Through unwavering dedication, inventiveness, and social impact, he has made a niche for himself in a world rife with entrepreneurial talent,” one profile remarked, noting how his rise from modest beginnings can inspire businesspeople everywhererogerbenitesentrepreneur.wordpress.com. Indeed, Benites’s story is still being written. But whether as the co-founder of Bitinka or as a behind-the-scenes advisor, his impact on the fintech landscape in Latin America is indelible. He has proven that a visionary from Peru can not only catch the wave of a global technology revolution, but can also help steer it – with an eye toward bringing the benefits to those who need them most. Sources: Bitinka and InkaPay media coverage, including iProfesional (2017)iprofesional.comiprofesional.com ; El Comercio interviews (2017– 2018)elcomercio.peelcomercio.pe; Cryptonews/Cryptonomist (2021)cryptonews.netcryptonews.net; Gestión (2017)gestion.pe; and internal company history documentsfile-q3euy6b8drwfqffizxwlpvfile4ehjqjnjmpm4fbqbrxniub.