From agro to “tech”, companies seek “digital dollars” to reduce exchange costs

Brazilian importers, exporters and foreign exchange brokers found stablecoins, or “digital dollars”, an alternative to reduce the cost of international remittances. The movement gained scale and already appears in Central Bank data: operations with these assets abroad totaled the equivalent of R$34.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, double the amount recorded in the same period of 2025. Stablecoins reached 98% of the entire volume of cryptoactives sent abroad by Brazilians in the period, according to data from the BC.

Growth occurs in an environment of tax uncertainty. Most transactions with stablecoins are still not subject to IOF, a gap that the government tried to fill by decreeretreated after a reaction from the sector and returned to the agenda in May with a technical reclassification carried out by the Central Bank.

The explanation for the growth is, in large part, the cost differential compared to the conventional exchange rate. A remittance of R$50,000 through the traditional banking system accumulates IOF of 0.38% for legal entities, exchange spread between 1% and 2.5%, SWIFT fee between R$75 and R$250 per transaction, and possible correspondent bank fees. The total cost is typically between 2% and 4% of the amount remitted.

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Using the stablecoin route, the main cost is the conversion spread between reais and stablecoin on regulated platforms, between 0.5% and 1.5%. And most operations do not suffer from IOF.

“Unlike the traditional system, which depends on multiple intermediaries and slow manual processes, settlement onchain (on a blockchain network) allows money to move at internet speed, reducing costs and delays”, explains Fabio Plein, general director of Coinbase to the Americas. “This infrastructure is programmable and open, returning control to users and eliminating the exclusivity of closed banking systems,” he says.

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Brokers, technology and agro

The foreign exchange and remittance sector was the first to test the waters of stablecoins at scale in Brazil. Those who move dollars between jurisdictions pay fees at each step and wait up to two days to settle a SWIFT transfer. With stablecoins, they can maintain reserves in digital assets and settle positions in real time, at any time, without depending on banking windows or correspondents.

The model spread quickly. The main foreign exchange brokers operating in Brazil already use stablecoins, or have projects in an advanced stage of implementationas part of treasury management, according to the report.

Importers and exporters with recurring operations are also among the most active in recent months. “All import and export sectors are already included in this [ecossistema]mainly with big tickets, $100,000, $1 million. These are operations that already take place”, says Rafael Goulart, country manager at Pomelo in Brazil, fintech founded by Argentines that provides stablecoin card issuance infrastructure for banks and fintechs in Latin America.

Agribusiness and the electronics sector lead demand in the B2B segment, according to Gabriel Boni, COO of TCR Financea broker specializing in international payments via stablecoins. “Imagine that you have a grain or electronics supplier in China and you need to import this material to Latin America. For all of this, companies look for TCR”, says Boni. The company also serves executives with multinational operations and businesspeople who frequently travel abroad.

Technology companies that pay for cloud computing services abroad and professionals who receive them from international clients complete the profile. They are developers, content creators and digital service providers who started to receive payments in stablecoins as a way of simplifying international payments and reducing exchange bureaucracy.

“At the end, the end users of this ecosystem can be foreign trade companies, marketplaces, e-commerces, digital platforms, games, tourism, content, technology or any business with recurring international flow”, says Sergio Massa, CEO of Z.ro Digital Assetsa Brazilian fintech that provides stablecoin settlement infrastructure for banks, remittance companies and fintechs without its own technological structure for cross-border.

“The greatest demand does not come from a single factor, such as a lower dollar or tax issues. It comes from the combination of regulation, the search for efficiency, the internationalization of companies and the need to reduce costs and deadlines in international payments”, says Massa.

New players look to Brazil

With growing demand, new entrants arrive in Brazil. “Most providers only allow you to take liquidity. We allow you to do both,” says Sebastian Villanueva, head of sales for Latin America at Checker Financean American company that operates a liquidity network in stablecoins and has just landed in Brazil.

The startup, which comes from a R$40 million round led by Galaxy Ventures, Al Mada Ventures and Framework Ventures, with strategic participation from Bitso, is in the process of joining Abracam, an association in the Brazilian exchange sector, and has Braza Bank as its first client in the country.

In the same direction, the also American LiberPay chose Brazil as the global debut market for its stablecoin payments solution. “Usage is growing rapidly among everyday people, not just crypto enthusiasts. We have invested significant resources in Brazil because we believe Brazilians share this vision,” says co-founder Tobias Kleitman. “We’re just getting started.”

IOF threat accelerated

The growth of the stablecoin intermediary market in Brazil has grown in the face of attempts to regulate the sector. In 2025, the federal government increased the IOF on tourist exchange and international credit cards to 3.5%. For foreign exchange brokers, the increase in the cost of traditional operations was the trigger they needed to seek more efficient ways to move dollars.

For importing and exporting companies, the measure acted as a warning sign: sand tourist exchange was being taxed, corporate remittances could be the next target. This was combined with other factors that the market already highlighted, such as the search for efficiency, increasing internationalization of companies and pressure to reduce costs and deadlines in international payments.

With the migration underway, the government was preparing a public consultation to extend the 3.5% IOF to all transactions with stablecoins. The proposal became known in the market before being formalized, met with resistance from the sector and ended up being shelved.

“Stablecoins are gaining relevant scale as international settlement solutions around the world. The question for Brazil should not be whether these technologies should be restricted, but how to incorporate them into the regulated environment in a way that preserves both innovation and the integrity of the financial system”, points out Plein, from Coinbase. “These two goals are not in conflict.”

In the US, the Clarity Act regulation is being processed in the Senate with text that prohibits passive interest on stablecoin balances, but allows rewards linked to use in transactions. “The understanding around stablecoin rewards, differentiating passive interest from rewards tied to usage, reflects an effort to achieve regulatory balance and build consensus among industry participants,” says Plein, praising the American approach.

The next step: use in AI

Coinbase projects an additional stage for stablecoins, where they will be used by artificial intelligence agents for payments. A protocol developed by the company in partnership with Cloudflare allows AIs pay with stablecoins without human intervention, and has already been adopted by Amazon Web Services, Shopify and Google.

“These agents can keep stablecoins in their wallets, use them to initiate transactions and pay for services without human intervention,” says Guilherme Bettanin, leader of Base in Brazil, Coinbase’s blockchain network focused on payments. “From a technical perspective, Base offers the necessary scale for microtransactions, which will be fundamental to commerce agenticwith average transaction costs of less than US$0.001″, he says.

The bet doesn’t look futuristic. The number of AI agents using the protocol at the Base already exceeds 56 thousand, with growth of 40% in the last 30 days. By 2030, projections indicate that the market for autonomous payments by AI agents could reach US$30 trillion.