A LatAm telecom operator is putting part of its finances on Avalanche

Latin American telecom operator VIVA is putting part of its financial plumbing onchain through Iris, a new network that wants to help mobile carriers turn their customer relationships and distribution networks into payments and other financial services.

VIVA, which has operated in Bolivia for more than 25 years and recently expanded into Mexico, is the first carrier live on Iris. It is using USDi, the network’s dollar-backed stablecoin issued by stablecoin infrastructure firm Agora, to settle transactions and hold eligible operating reserves in dollars instead of local currency.

Iris was founded by Jules Miller, a former partner at IBM Blockchain Ventures who helped launch the company’s blockchain venture group.

“Iris is the financial network for telecom operators,” Miller told CoinDesk in an interview. Carriers, she explained, can plug their identity, billing and distribution systems into the network, activate different services and settle activity in U.S. dollars without replacing their core infrastructure.

“We’ve invested heavily in modernizing our network and bringing our customers into the digital economy,” VIVA CEO Ryan Alvarez said in a statement. “Iris lets us earn new revenue on that investment and grow into a platform, without replacing the systems our business already runs on.”

Iris debuts with a $43 million commitment from Balesia Group, a family office with telecom businesses across the Americas. The broader bet is that carriers can capture more of the economics generated by infrastructure they have spent decades building.

Between 2012 and 2025, global mobile data traffic grew more than 50% annually while operator service revenue increased less than 1% per year, according to McKinsey figures cited by Iris.

Telecom operators bring something financial apps often spend heavily trying to build: customers, verified identities and distribution.

That can be particularly powerful in emerging markets.

“In the U.S. the operator is like one rail among many,” Ava Labs Chief Business Officer John Nahas told CoinDesk. In markets such as Bolivia, by contrast, “the mobile carrier is often the rail that people do everything on.”

That is why Iris expects its initial expansion to focus on Latin America and potentially parts of Africa and Asia rather than the U.S., Nahas said.

VIVA offers an early test of whether that model can translate into better economics for carriers. Nahas said a super-app product used by VIVA helped reduce churn among prepaid mobile customers by 33% while increasing their lifetime value by 35%.

“When you start to see numbers like this, it just starts making a lot of sense,” he said, adding that Iris now needs more real-world case studies.

Stablecoins behind telecoms

Iris runs on a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1, giving the network control over its settlement, operating and compliance requirements. USDi serves as the settlement asset, while also giving VIVA the option to hold eligible operating reserves in dollars.

In VIVA’s case, using U.S. dollar stablecoin for settlements also means having the option to hold eligible operating reserves in U.S. dollars, which is particularly relevant in markets with volatile local currencies.