Mastercard’s The Belle Block recently made its way to Latin America and the Caribbean to host the 11th edition of its LAC innovation forum, according to a press release.
"Digital assets have the power to transform the way we pay, get paid and invest. Together with the crypto community, we want to ensure we are bringing more women and underserved to the table in the Web3 and crypto world so they can have an active role in leading the future of payments," vice president, communications, Latin America and the Caribbean, Janet Rivera-Hernandez, said.
Established this past June, The Belle Block was created to strengthen women's role in the development of Web3 technology and crypto. The expansion comes in correlation with its collaboration with WAGMI LatAm, which intends to welcome 5 million Latin women into Web3 by 2030.
"Today's crypto climate requires looking ahead, informing and giving more people the choice to explore and engage in the crypto ecosystem to better understand the power of blockchain," a recent press release states. "Although women and men are using crypto for similar reasons – investing, buying, trading and opening wallets – 77% of Latin American women who are familiar with crypto agree they would use it more if they understood it better."
The Belle Block counts with the support of its catalog of partners, which include SheFi, HerHouse, Blu3 DAO and the Boys Club.
The collaboration forms part of the Mastercard diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiative, which currently spans 16 markets across Europe and North America.
"WAGMI LatAm brings together more than 30 organizations in the U.S. and Latin America to ensure Latin American women are co-creators and active participants in the evolution of the Web3 ecosystem by providing access to education, resources and conducting research," said Laura Navarro Muñoz, governor of H.E.R. DAO LATAM and one of the three founding member organizations of WAGMI LATAM. "Based on our experience, community-building and education will be key to achieve WAGMI LATAM's goal of onboarding 5 million women into Web3 by 2030 and we are looking forward to working with Mastercard to achieve this goal."