Wences Casares

Argentina, financial technology. Casares, raised on a sheep farm in Patagonia, founded Patagon in 1997, an online brokerage and bank that operated across Latin America and sold to Santander in 2000. He later started Banco Lemon, a low-cost bank for Brazilians without accounts, and then the bitcoin custody firm Xapo. His career shows the early internet's attempt to treat the region as one market, and its limits.