BlackRock founder Larry Fink believes that the United States’ tokenization development needs to learn from Brazil. As the largest cryptocurrency market in Latin America, it saw inflows worth $318.8 billion in 2024, with a growth rate of 109.9%. Stablecoins account for nearly 60%, becoming the main battleground for global digital asset experiments. This article is sourced from PANews and compiled, edited, and written by Dongqu.
(Previous summary: BRICS countries completed their first “bilateral CBDC cross-border settlement” without USD; Hong Kong and Brazil completed trade pilot through Chainlink)
(Additional background: Brazil Central Bank’s $140 million reserve was hacked! The stolen funds were exchanged for Bitcoin, with hacker costs only $2,760. Service providers became a breach point.)

Table of Contents

• Leading Latin American Cryptocurrency Players
• “Parallel Dollar System” Under Inflation and Depreciation
• Evolution of Brazil’s Regulatory Framework and “Upgrading”

We are late. Recently, BlackRock founder Larry Fink said at a Wall Street Journal summit that the US needs to keep pace with the global trend of tokenization to avoid falling behind. The leader he sees is Brazil.

This answer is quite surprising. As a top ten global economy with a unique geographical position, Brazil is also trying to extend its national strength into the crypto world.

In December, the capital market of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, was not short of new stories about “digital assets.”

On December 4th, Nasdaq-listed DeFi Technologies announced that its subsidiary Valour was approved to list four digital asset ETPs on Brazil’s main exchange B3, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Sui. These products will be denominated in Brazilian Reais and traded within local brokerages and custody systems. Johan Wattenström, CEO of DeFi Technologies, stated that Brazil “has already become one of the most important and fastest-growing digital asset markets globally.”

On December 8th, renowned crypto venture firm Paradigm announced an investment of $13.5 million in Brazil’s stablecoin company Crown. This marks the firm’s first bet on a Brazilian startup.

Crown’s issuance, BRLV, is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Brazilian real, backed by Brazilian government bonds. After this round, its valuation is approximately $90 million. BRLV’s cumulative subscription volume exceeds 360 million reais, and some media call it one of the largest non-USD stablecoins in emerging markets.

These are not isolated events. In narratives from international capital and infrastructure providers, Brazil is no longer just a “high-interest emerging market,” but is increasingly viewed as the main experimental battlefield for Latin American digital assets—a underestimated “honor student.”

Leading Latin American Cryptocurrency Players

Brazil is now Latin America’s largest crypto market and one of the fastest-growing globally. According to Chainalysis 2025 “Cryptocurrency Geography Report,” in 2024, the inflow of cryptocurrency value into Brazil was about $318.8 billion, with a quarter-on-quarter growth rate of 109.9%. It accounts for nearly one-third of Latin America and ranks fifth in the 2025 global cryptocurrency adoption index.

At the Brazil Blockchain Conference held at the end of November, Flavio Correa Prado, an auditor from Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service, revealed that according to current regulations, reported monthly cryptocurrency transactions have reached $6 billion to $8 billion. He indicated that if the current trend continues, by 2030, this figure could rise to $9 billion per month. Most of this volume comes from stablecoins like USDT and USDC.

From an asset structure perspective, Brazil’s market is uniquely dominated by stablecoins. A April analysis by crypto custody firm Fireblocks pointed out that stablecoins account for 59.8% of related crypto activity in Brazil, far above the global average of 44.7%. Official statistics are even more exaggerated. Brazil’s Central Bank Governor Gabriel Galípolo mentioned in a public speech this year that approximately 90% of the country’s crypto assets, including cross-border payments and exchange settlements, trace back to stablecoin-related operations.

The highly stablecoin-dominant structure indicates that Brazil is a “highly financialized and compliant” crypto market, rather than a mere speculative playground. However, in terms of crypto asset allocation, Brazil is among the earliest markets globally to systematically embrace crypto assets, integrating crypto products into the existing capital markets.

Brazil’s main exchange, B3 (Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão), is the country’s sole securities exchange, serving as the core market for stocks, bonds, futures, and ETFs. As early as 2021–2022, managers like Hashdex and QR Asset launched multiple Bitcoin, Ethereum, and comprehensive crypto index ETFs on B3. Additionally, the Brazilian regulator approved the first single-asset Solana spot ETF listed on B3 last September, seen by many media outlets as a bold attempt to approve a SOL spot ETF before the US.

By mid-2025, more than 20 ETFs offering full or partial crypto exposure will be listed on B3, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, and hybrid products combining Bitcoin and gold. B3’s official educational website describes crypto ETFs as “practical tools for gaining digital asset exposure in a regulated environment,” emphasizing custody by regulated institutions, valuation in the local currency real, and inclusion within the country’s tax framework. B3 has also launched Bitcoin futures contracts and plans to expand to Ethereum and Solana futures, providing hedging and arbitrage tools for institutions and high-net-worth investors.

At the retail level, Brazil has also formed a relatively complete participant ecosystem. Local exchanges like Mercado Bitcoin combine trading, custody, and tokenized asset issuance; leading digital bank Nubank has embedded a crypto investment module directly into its mobile banking app, with about 6.6 million crypto users in Brazil, making it one of the world’s largest crypto banking platforms; another giant, PicPay, with over 60 million users, has established a dedicated Crypto & Web3 division, focusing on trading, stablecoins, and global accounts.

Notably, data from Circle and Nubank show that in 2024, Nubank’s USDC holdings grew tenfold, with about 30% of crypto customers holding USDC, and over half of new users using USDC as their first crypto asset. In 2025, Nubank introduced an annualized 4% yield reward plan for USDC holders, officially embedding the stablecoin into banking and wealth management.

“Parallel Dollar System” Under Inflation and Depreciation

Compared to Argentina, Brazil is not a hyperinflation country “on the brink of collapse,” but its macro environment is not friendly to residents’ confidence.

Data from the World Bank and IMF show that since 2021, Brazil’s inflation has repeatedly exceeded the central bank’s target upper limit, rising again toward the end of 2024 and into mid-2025. As of August 2025, the CPI year-over-year increase was about 5.1%, above the 4.5% target ceiling. Over the past decade, the Brazilian real has experienced multiple sharp depreciations against the US dollar: from about 2 BRL/USD in 2013 to over 5 BRL/USD in 2020–2021. Although there has been some recovery in recent years, it remains far weaker than early 2010s levels.

For middle-class families and enterprises, this gradual currency depreciation has led to “dollarization” of savings habits. Many households use USD deposits, offshore accounts, or stablecoins for partial asset “soft escape.” On the corporate side, hedging demands have increased—importers, exporters, and commodity-dependent companies seek more stable valuation units beyond their local currency balance sheets. Additionally, Brazil has maintained double-digit benchmark interest rates for years, with high nominal rates but unstable purchasing power, creating fertile ground for financial innovations like “interest spread” strategies.

Chainalysis’ Latin America analysis indicates that stablecoins serve three main functions in the region: hedging local currency risk, cross-border remittance/trade, and e-commerce payments. Therefore, Brazil’s demand for stablecoins is largely driven by rational decisions to replace offshore dollar accounts with USDT/USDC, given local currency volatility and capital controls.

The improvement of digital payment infrastructure also facilitates residents’ access to stablecoins. Brazil’s real-time payment system Pix, led by the Central Bank, is the main channel for daily transfers and consumption. In 2024, Circle integrated with Pix, enabling Brazilian users to freely convert between local currency and USDC within minutes via bank transfers. Payment infrastructure providers like TransFi combine stablecoins with Pix for cross-border remittance, e-commerce collection, and freelance settlement, achieving automatic currency exchange.

Evolution of Brazil’s Regulatory Framework and “Upgrading”

Brazil’s rapid crypto market growth is not only driven by currency depreciation but also closely related to regulatory acceptance and control. Looking back over the past decade, Brazil’s regulation did not simply go from non-existent to comprehensive but evolved from risk warnings and general legal constraints to systematic legislation and foreign exchange regulation.

In 2014, when cryptocurrencies began to emerge as a significant new force, the Central Bank issued a notice warning about the risks of “virtual currencies,” explicitly stating they are not electronic money under Brazilian law. It also mentioned that, at that time, the impact of cryptocurrencies on the financial system was limited, but the bank was continuously monitoring.

In 2017, during the ICO boom, the Central Bank issued another notice emphasizing that virtual currencies are not regulated by Brazil’s financial authorities, lack sovereignty backing, have high volatility, and pose risks of money laundering and illegal activities. The Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) also issued guidance on ICOs, warning that some tokens could constitute securities and be subject to CVM regulation. It clarified that at that time, investment funds could not hold cryptocurrencies directly as they did not meet existing legal definitions of “financial assets.”

During this phase, regulators did not prohibit individuals and companies from holding or using these high-risk assets but did not recognize their status as financial assets nor allow regulated funds to directly allocate them.

In 2019, Brazil began to incorporate cryptocurrencies into its tax and foreign exchange rules. The Federal Revenue Service issued normative instructions requiring domestic virtual asset service providers, including exchanges, to report user transaction information; residents engaging in crypto transactions on foreign platforms or OTC above certain scales must also declare, with gains subject to income tax.

By late 2022, Brazil moved beyond general legal constraints, passing Federal Law No. 14,478, known as the “Crypto Law,” establishing the legal category of “virtual asset service providers (VASP)” and authorizing agencies like the Central Bank and CVM to set specific rules. In 2023, the government clarified that “regulated virtual asset services” are within the scope of financial system regulation, paving the way for detailed rules led by the Central Bank. Chainalysis’ 2025 analysis states this laid the foundation for Brazil’s “comprehensive crypto regulation framework” in Latin America.

This year, Brazil further refined its crypto legislation, with the Central Bank issuing several resolutions (519–521). Under the new foreign exchange law system, stablecoins denominated in foreign or local currency are regarded as a digital form of foreign exchange or foreign currency claim. Institutions providing related exchange, cross-border payments, and settlement services must obtain corresponding foreign exchange and payment licenses. The government is also discussing tax schemes for cross-border crypto payments to prevent regulatory arbitrage via stablecoins.

This entire framework does not outright ban stablecoins as “illegal dollarization tools,” but strives to integrate them into a monitored, taxable foreign exchange system.

In summary, Brazil’s crypto story is not a “sudden deregulation and explosive growth” narrative but benefits from long-term inflationary and currency volatility backgrounds. Residents and enterprises spontaneously seek hedging tools; with mature fintech infrastructure like Pix, crypto assets naturally embed into existing payment and investment systems; after years of cautious observation and partial restrictions, regulators chose to bring this market into a visible, controllable institutional track through taxation, virtual asset laws, and new foreign exchange regulations.

The Paradigm investment in Crown mentioned at the beginning of this article is just the latest footnote in this process. Over the coming years, with the advancement of Drex digital real and more stablecoins and asset tokenization projects, Brazil is likely to continue serving as a “deep coupling” model between crypto and traditional finance, providing ongoing reference in global crypto regulation and market practice.

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Tags: Tokenization, Cryptocurrency, Brazil, Latin America, Stablecoins