Dollar-pegged stablecoins already account for roughly 90% of crypto transaction volume in Brazil, with most of it used for payments and settlements, according to data from tax authorities.
Brazil processes between $6 billion and $8 billion in cryptocurrencies each month, much of it using stablecoins denominated in dollars rather than the country’s currency.
However, even as dollar stablecoins have proliferated, Brazil’s central bank has taken steps to limit their role in regulated cross-border payments. Resolution 561, which goes into effect on October 1, will prohibit payments companies from settling cross-border payments in stablecoins or other cryptocurrencies, closing a backchannel that had funneled reais through dollar tokens. The central bank has presented stablecoins as a threat to monetary sovereignty, tax enforcement and anti-money laundering controls.
Pix now faces pressure from both sides after Washington named it a trade barrier, while Brazilian regulators protect it from growing competition from dollar-backed stablecoins.
However, Pix may not compete with stablecoins.
“In practice, they are complementary,” Rodrigo Caggiano, founder of Brazilian real-world asset monitoring platform RWA Monitor, told CoinDesk. “Pix has addressed domestic instant payments well, while stablecoins expand what is possible when operating on blockchain networks.”
US pressure is likely to accelerate Brazil’s regulatory debate over stablecoins and digital financial infrastructure, Caggiano said, as the central bank builds its own tokenized settlement system, Drex, on similar programmable rails.
