This article maps the Mexican MVNO landscape, screens for realistic acquisition targets, and sizes the user-onboarding upside if Inversion rolls out its “crypto-in-the-background” playbook. It is purely a thought experiment, I am not part of the Inversion team , but it follows the structure of an investment memo so readers can see the logic end-to-end.
What is inversion?
Inversion Chain is a custom Layer 1 blockchain on Avalanche built to bring businesses onchain. Inversion will use the new blockchain to execute a private equity strategy, acquiring traditional businesses and integrating them with blockchain technology.
Ever since Santiago Roel Santos unveiled Inversion he has dropped the same breadcrumb in every podcast, tweet and conference panel:
“Latin America, and probably Mexico first, is where we’ll run the playbook. People already top-up their phones every week and would rather hold dollars than pesos.”
During an Espacio Cripto / Frontera interview he doubled-down, calling MVNOs “the fastest bridge from fiat cash-in to an onchain dollar balance.”
What are MVNOs
An MVNO is a mobile provider that doesn’t build or own cell towers; instead, it leases capacity from a major carrier’s network. It then sells its own SIMs and plans, often at lower prices or with niche perks , while your calls, texts, and data still ride on the big carrier’s infrastructure.
Why MVNOs
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Asset-light acquisitions - no spectrum transfers, towers or unionised staff, so a share purchase closes quickly.
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Pre-paid user rails - the operator already handles KYC, top-ups and customer support; Inversion can slip an onchain dollar balance in behind the existing flow.
This paper is purely a thought-experiment (I am not on the Inversion team). It shows, with public data, how buying a mid-tier Mexican MVNO could move hundreds of thousands of everyday users onchain without them realising it.
Mexico’s Top-10 MVNOs
Three MVNOs Inversion could actually buy
Single-deal case study - Diri Móvil
Inversion won’t stop at a single telco. If it rolls up five Mexican MVNOs - NEWWW (≈ 687 k), Diri (≈ 236 k), Yobi (≈ 150 k), Weex (≈ 125 k) and Rocketel (≈ 115 k) the combined reach is about 1.3 million prepaid users. Using the short adoption rule (one feature used once = onchain), that translates into:
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≈ 520 k users onboarded at a cautious 40 % feature-uptake
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≈ 850 k users onboarded at a base-case 65 % uptake
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≈ 1 million users onboarded if 80 % of subscribers try at least one new feature
So a single five-deal loop in Mexico alone can plausibly push half-to-one million mainstream users onto Inversion Chain.
If Inversion acquires even one of Mexico’s indie MVNOs, a 40–65 % silent adoption rate already puts 500 000–750 000 mainstream users onchain. Run the same playbook across five similar operators and Inversion could have over 1 million Mexican mobile subscribers using stable-coin rails, exactly the kind of proof-point behind Santiago’s “Berkshire-onchain” vision.