Companies in Brazil can now access USDC via Pix
Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has announced a major step towards facilitating access to the digital dollar in high-demand global markets. Companies in Brazil and Mexico can now access USDC directly through the national instant payment systems, Pix and SPEI, without the need to transfer funds to international banks.
As Coinbase highlighted in an announcement released on Tuesday (17), this marks a significant advance in the local availability of the stablecoin.
Integration with major Brazilian and Mexican banks will allow companies to purchase USDC using local currencies — the Real (BRL) in Brazil and the Peso (MXN) in Mexico. In practice, this eliminates the need to previously convert to US dollars.
Furthermore, this instant access promises to drastically reduce processing times, which could previously take days, to just a few minutes. This agility frees up capital that was previously tied up in international settlement processes.
Coinbase releases access to USDC for companies in Brazil
This development is particularly relevant for companies operating in Latin America, where a large proportion of international trade transactions are made in dollars. In Mexico, which is one of the United States’ largest trading partners, more than US$800 billion in goods and services are exchanged annually.
In Brazil, around 95% of the US$640 billion in foreign trade also uses the dollar as the reference currency. This includes direct trade with the US, which moves around US$120 billion per year.
Another important aspect is the impact on international remittances, especially on the US-Mexico route, which is the largest in the world. In 2023, remittances to Mexico totaled US$63 billion, representing up to 4% of the country's GDP. With the use of stablecoins such as USDC, the cost of these transfers can be much lower than traditional remittances, which usually have average fees of 6.35% of the amount sent.
As Coinbase highlighted, in addition to offering greater speed and savings, the inclusion of USDC in the payment systems of Brazil and Mexico strengthens the growing interest of traditional financial institutions in the benefits of blockchain technology.
Circle said it believes this convergence between traditional finance and blockchain will expand further, with new local integrations in other markets around the world.
With this advancement, companies in Latin America will be able to more easily take advantage of the advantages of the digital dollar, using USDC not only to optimize their operations, but also to offer a modern and accessible payment option to their customers.