Guatemala’s “dry” alternative to the Panama Canal is being financed through a new token system.
Guatemala is hiding one of America’s most ambitious infrastructure projects in years. The private group has been quietly but firmly developing the Guatemala Interoceanic Corridor (GIC), a “dry canal” that will run through Central America, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Unlike the Panama Canal, which is an artificial waterway, the tunnel will be an underground artery. It will include a highway, railroad, oil and gas pipelines, and multiple access parks that will span the 372-kilometer-long highway. The first two phases of the corridor, which is intended to be completed by the end of the decade, will connect the planned Pacific port of San Luis with the Atlantic-Caribbean port of San Jorge, which will serve as the terminal points of the corridor.
The Guatemalan Interoceanic Consor-tium (CIGSA), Lakshmi Capital of India, and the Office of Liaison and Business with Latin America (ODEPAL) signed a letter of intent to develop this project in February 2024. Firm estimates have the total cost of the project including ports, transport parks, highway, railway, ole duct, and ole duct billions 7 dollars.
“It’s all about being close to the main economic center of our continent,” said Guillermo Catalán, chairman of the GIC project and general manager of ODEPAL, the Guatemalan construction company that is building the GIC. “Global trade revolves around three main regions: Asia, Europe, and North America, which generate 80% of wealth and trade. Our comparative advantage is proximity. Also, we operate under a secret regime with protective legislation and public support through inclusive business models where local actors participate.”
In 2023, Mexico opened its own “dry” alternative to the Panama Canal, the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. And in 2024, Honduras began to promote a possible railway connecting the sea.
Along with engineering work, GIC boasts a new financing system.
One of the biggest costs is the purchase of the property itself. The recovery program has a budget of 500 million dollars, of which 175 million dollars come from a mix of traditional financing methods such as funds, banks, and private investors. The remaining $325 million was raised through tokens, where real-world assets are tied to blockchain technology. These become digital bonds that can also be traded on digital markets. The purpose of tokenization is to democratize finance by making projects available to investors of any size. For developers, the advantage is that more money can be collected, anywhere in the world. The first issuance of the token came out in late October 2025 with 38.5 million dollars funded by real world assets. The second phase of the remaining balance is expected in Q2 2026.
Although tokenization is a relatively new form of financing, it has caught on in more than one country. Most famously, nearby El Salvador has implemented regulations that add tokens to the list of benefits that make it a digital country. The 2023 Act laid out the framework for the issuance of tokens, and the results have been huge for the construction business.
Funding a major infrastructure project with tokens provides a vote of confidence in a new, decentralized financial system. It also raises the bar for other countries considering how digitization can fit into their future. Since tokenization has become a popular method of traditional financing it is limited mainly to real estate projects. GIC is the first infrastructure project to hire.
“The controlled tokenization from El Salvador redefines who can invest,” said Alejandro Muñoz, CEO of Accelerate, a Salvadoran law firm that developed Coingt, the token used for GIC. “For the first time, ordinary people, without being professional investors or having a lot of money, can participate directly in major regional infrastructure projects. From this new financial structure, projects like the Interoceanic Corridor of Guatemala stop being used only for large funds and open to investments that are easily accessible, transparent and with few intermediaries.”
Besides adding a new material link to the Atlantic-Pacific trade, the broad interpretation is that the GIC will play a role in connecting the developing region of Latin America, financially and digitally, to the rest of the world, and in doing so, it will include not only goods but also people.
