Brazil’s central bank chief, Gabriel Galipolo, reported on Thursday that the use of crypto assets has surged in the country over the past two to three years, with stablecoins accounting for approximately 90% of the market flow.
Stablecoins, which are pegged to real-world assets like the U.S. dollar, are less volatile compared to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Galipolo, speaking at a Bank for International Settlements event in Mexico City, noted that the increasing use of cryptocurrencies, especially for international payments, is creating challenges for regulation and oversight.
“Most of that is to buy things and shop abroad,” Galipolo explained, emphasizing that this trend complicates taxation and raises concerns about money laundering.
In his remarks, Galipolo also clarified that Brazil’s Drex initiative is not a central bank digital currency (CBDC) but an infrastructure designed to improve credit access with collateralized assets, addressing the high cost of local financing due to limited guarantee use.
Drex will leverage distributed ledger technology for wholesale interbank transactions, while retail access will be facilitated by tokenized bank deposits.
Galipolo also highlighted the potential for Brazil’s popular instant payment system, Pix, to integrate with international instant payment networks, thanks to its programmability, which could enhance cross-border transactions across the Americas.
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