Dollar-linked stablecoins already account for about 90% of crypto transaction volume in Brazil, most of which is used for payments and settlements, according to tax authority data.
Brazil processes between $6 billion and $8 billion in crypto each month, much of which uses dollar-denominated stablecoins instead of the country’s own currency.
But even as dollar stablecoins have proliferated, Brazil’s central bank has moved to limit their role in regulated cross-border payments. Resolution 561, which takes effect on October 1, is set to prevent payment firms from settling cross-border payments in stablecoins or other crypto, closing a back-end channel that had routed reais through dollar tokens. The central bank has cast stablecoins as a threat to monetary sovereignty, tax enforcement and anti-money laundering controls.
Pix is now facing pressure from both sides after Washington called it a trade barrier, while Brazilian regulators are protecting 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 by operating on blockchain networks.”
U.S. 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.
