Bitso Brings US Options Trading to Mexico Through Alpaca Partnership

Bitso has launched options trading on US-listed stocks and ETFs for investors in Mexico, offering the product through Nvierto, its investment adviser registered with Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission, on infrastructure from brokerage and clearing provider Alpaca, according to an Alpaca announcement published October 28, 2026. The announcement described the launch as recent and did not state a separate go-live date. Options covering more than 6,000 US stocks and ETFs are tradable from the same account Bitso customers already use to trade US equities.

Nvierto operates as Nvierto, S.A. de C.V., Asesor en Inversiones Independiente. It is registered in the Investment Advisers Registry of the National Banking and Securities Commission (Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, or CNBV) under folio number 30205 and provides investment advisory services and order transmission related to securities; the CNBV’s supervision is limited to investment advisory services in securities. Transactions in US-listed securities are executed through Alpaca Securities LLC, a US broker-dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a member of FINRA and SIPC. Alpaca Securities LLC, which does business as Alpaca Clearing, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc., and technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc. The announcement describes Bitso as Latin America’s digital financial platform with a community of over 10 million users.

Options Structure and Approval

Options run on top of Bitso’s existing US stock product on Alpaca’s brokerage infrastructure. Users complete options approval within the Bitso platform through a suitability profile, the Alpaca Options Agreement, and the OCC risk disclosure, and approval decisions are subject to eligibility and compliance review. The available single-leg strategies are covered calls and cash-secured puts at Level 1, and calls and puts at Level 2. Every order preview shows the premium, breakeven, and maximum possible loss before a trade is confirmed.

Bitso designed the experience knowing that for many of its users this may be their first encounter with options. Users can request approval within the app and can learn at their own pace through an Options Hub in the Bitso app, alongside an “Options 101” guide and video content that includes a podcast-style explainer in Spanish.

Alex Mehrdad, General Manager of Retail at Bitso, said the platform’s most engaged investors were asking for more ways to act on their views than simply buying or selling a share. “They can use options to help hedge their positions, potentially earn extra income on shares they already hold, or take a view on where a stock is heading, in some cases with less capital than buying the shares outright,” he said.

Reported Growth and Next Steps

The options launch extends the US stocks and ETFs service that Bitso, founded in 2014 as a cryptocurrency platform, introduced with Alpaca in October 2025. That earlier offering used Alpaca’s Broker API to provide commission-free trading, fractional investing from US$1, and 24/5 trading, at a time when Bitso reported a community of over 9 million clients, according to Alpaca’s February 19, 2026 post on the stocks launch, which put US$1 at roughly 18 pesos at its publication date. The February 2026 post said the partners’ roadmap included the addition of options and tokenized US equities.

Bitso reported that more than 13,000 people joined the waitlist ahead of the stocks launch and that stock trading volume has grown about 32% month over month since January 2026, according to internal data the company provided to Alpaca as of October 27, 2026. The company also reported that account upgrades through its fully digital flow nearly doubled in August 2026, and that its “US$1M in Free Stocks” campaign brought in new investors at a cost below its paid-media benchmark while re-engaging roughly 30% of its audience. Mehrdad said the growth of US stocks exceeded the company’s expectations and was broad-based, with every group of investors growing at double-digit monthly rates rather than the platform relying on a handful of power users.

Historically, a Mexican investor who wanted US-listed options had to open an account with an offshore broker, according to the announcement. Alongside options, Bitso’s platform now offers US stocks and ETFs, yield products, and US IPOs from a single platform. Mehrdad described US equities as the entry point, with fractional investing from US$1, and said IPO Access lets users subscribe to US offerings at the offer price.

Bitso’s entire US equities offering, including US IPO access, is built on Alpaca’s infrastructure, giving the team an established foundation to integrate options without changing the user experience. Mehrdad said Alpaca supports the full options lifecycle, from account approval to exercise, assignment, and expiration, and that the integration work included fraud controls and edge cases around expirations and assignments.

“Options trading adds new layers of complexity, and as a self-clearing broker-dealer, we handle that work within our infrastructure so Bitso’s team can focus on the experience and education their users rely on,” said Yoshi Yokokawa, Co-Founder and CEO of Alpaca.

In the near term, Bitso said it is closely monitoring indicators such as approval conversion and execution quality, and that success means users fully understand the product, complete the approval process, and are equipped to make informed decisions about whether options trading is appropriate for their circumstances. Mehrdad said the long-term goal is for options to become a core part of how the platform’s most active investors engage with Bitso, following an education-first approach with consistent engagement throughout the investor journey and close attention to feedback from its most engaged traders. Alpaca and Bitso state that they are unaffiliated and that each is responsible for its own liabilities.