The Latin American stablecoin market is experiencing explosive growth, with Brazil and Mexico at the forefront as their localized stablecoin ecosystems mature rapidly.

Key Data:

• In July 2025, USDT and USDC accounted for over 90% of exchange transfer volumes (up from just 60% in 2022).

• The trading volume of Brazilian real-backed stablecoins reached $906 million in July 2025 and is projected to exceed $1.5 billion for the full year.

• The combined market capitalization of Mexican peso-backed stablecoins MXNB and MXNe hit $34 million, marking a 638-fold annual increase.

Use Cases:

• 71% of Latin American users utilize stablecoins for cross-border payments, while 100% of businesses have adopted, are testing, or are planning stablecoin strategies.

• The trading volume of Brazilian real-backed stablecoins has surged 230-fold over four years. Mexican peso-backed stablecoins have diverged into two paths: retail-focused (MXNB) and large-scale settlements (MXNe).

Technology Ecosystem:

• Brazil’s top five real-backed stablecoins (BRZ, cREAL, etc.) serve B2B payments, DeFi, and other scenarios, with Polygon and Celo as the primary on-chain channels.

• Mexico’s MXNB has migrated to the low-fee Arbitrum network, while MXNe focuses on large transactions via the Base chain.

DEX Liquidity:

• cREAL once dominated the Brazilian market, but BRLA has now become the main dollar通道. The MXNB-WAVAX trading pair in Mexico peaked at $29.7 million in a single month.

• Platform binding effects are significant: Uniswap dominates, while Aerodrome (on Base链) saw MXNe trading volume surge by $25.8 million.

Summary

Author: Filippo Armani
Compiled by: Tim, PANews

PANews Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Part 3 of "The Money Layer: LATAM Crypto 2025 Report," focusing on the current state of local stablecoin development in Latin America. Below is the compiled content.

Stablecoins have become the backbone of Latin America’s on-chain economic development. Both dollar-backed and local currency-backed stablecoins have replaced volatile assets as the core of crypto adoption, sustaining multi-fold growth momentum.

Key Insights:

• In July 2025, USDT and USDC accounted for over 90% of all exchange transfer volumes, a significant increase from approximately 60% in 2022.

• Brazil leads in both the number of active local stablecoins and total trading volume. As of July 2025, the trading volume of Brazilian real-backed stablecoins reached $906 million, nearly matching the 2024 total of $910 million. Projected annual trading volume is estimated to reach $1.5 billion at the current growth rate.

• The total market capitalization of Mexican peso-pegged stablecoins (MXNB + MXNe) reached approximately $34 million in July 2025, a 638-fold increase from 1 million pesos (about $53,000) in July 2024.

• Local stablecoins on major blockchains: Polygon (BRLA, BRZ), Celo (cREAL), Base (MXNe), and Arbitrum (MXNB).

Main Text
Stablecoins have become the financial cornerstone of cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America, with applications extending far beyond speculation. Across the region, stablecoins function as savings tools, payment channels, cross-border remittance corridors, and inflation hedges, making them the most practical and widely used form of cryptocurrency. Latin America currently leads the world in real-world stablecoin adoption: according to Fireblocks’ "2025 State of Stablecoins Report," 71% of respondents use stablecoins for cross-border payments, and 100% of businesses have either launched, are testing, or are preparing stablecoin strategies. Equally important, 92% of surveyed institutions reported that their wallet and API infrastructure supports stablecoin operations, reflecting both market demand and technological maturity. For millions in Latin America, stablecoins have become digital equivalents of the U.S. dollar—accessible inflation hedges and effective means to bypass capital controls. In many cases, they are the only viable channel for holding dollarized assets.

In countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, stablecoins have surpassed Bitcoin as the preferred crypto asset for daily use, thanks to their price stability and direct peg to the U.S. dollar (Fireblocks, "2025 State of Stablecoins Report"). USDC and USDT account for over 90% of exchange transfer volumes. In Argentina, for example, 72% of crypto asset purchases on Bitso in 2024 involved these two stablecoins, while Bitcoin accounted for only 8% (Bitso 2024 data). Colombia shows a similar pattern, with stablecoins making up 48% of purchases due to restrictions on U.S. dollar bank accounts and persistent currency volatility. Brazil’s shift is even more pronounced, with stablecoin trading volume on local exchanges growing 207.7% year-over-year, far outpacing other crypto assets (Chainalysis, October 2024). Beyond transfers, 39% of crypto asset purchases in Latin America in 2024 involved stablecoins, up from 30% the previous year (Bitso 2024).

Current State of Local Stablecoin Development
Although dollar-pegged assets remain the dominant form of stablecoin application in Latin America (primarily for inflation hedging), local currency-pegged stablecoins have experienced explosive growth over the past two years. These tokens, pegged to national fiat currencies like the Brazilian real and Mexican peso, are increasingly used for domestic payments, on-chain commercial activities, and integration with local financial systems. By eliminating the cumbersome process of converting between dollars and local fiat, these stablecoins reduce costs for merchants and users while accelerating local trade settlements. For businesses, they enable direct connections to payment systems like Brazil’s PIX, facilitating instant transfers without bank involvement while meeting tax compliance requirements. In high-inflation economies, these stablecoins also serve as "bridge assets," allowing users to transact in stable local currency units while retaining the option to convert into dollars or other stores of value for risk hedging.

Brazil provides the clearest case study of this trend, with real-backed stablecoins showing staggering year-on-year growth. Transaction activity surged from just over 5,000 in 2021 to more than 1.4 million in 2024, maintaining a high of 1.2 million so far in 2025—a 230-fold increase from four years ago. The number of unique senders also grew exponentially, from fewer than 800 in 2021 to over 90,000 in 2025, an 11-fold increase since 2023 alone. On-chain native transfer volume jumped from approximately 110 million reais (about $20.9 million at the time of writing) in 2021 to nearly 5 billion reais (about $900 million) in July 2025, almost matching the 2024 total. Including data up to August 2025, the year’s total transfer volume has already surpassed that of 2024. What began as a marginal experiment has rapidly evolved into a core pillar of Brazil’s on-chain economy, with explosive growth in transaction scale, user base, and transfer value within just a few years.

As of June 2025, five different Brazilian real-pegged stablecoins are actively circulating, reducing market concentration and signaling ecosystem maturity. These include:

• BRZ, issued by fintech company Transfero, providing blockchain infrastructure solutions for banks and payment institutions in Latin America;

• cREAL, issued by the Celo blockchain, focusing on mobile-first DeFi integration;

• BRLA, developed by BRLA Digital and Avenia, serving as a compliant fiat-to-crypto bridge;

• BRL1, supported by an alliance of exchanges including Mercado Bitcoin, Bitso, and Foxbit, aiming to establish industry-wide standards;

• BBRL, issued by the Braza Group, targeting regional trade and payment scenarios.

Despite this growth, Brazilian real-backed stablecoins are still in their early stages, with a circulating supply of approximately $23 million.

According to analysis by Iporanga Ventures in their latest "Brazilian Real Stablecoin Report," the landscape is evolving rapidly. While no clear market leader has emerged yet, deeper analysis of project-tier data reveals specific areas of领先优势.

• BRLA leads in "unique remitter count," indicating the broadest retail user coverage.

• cREAL dominates in transfer volume, reflecting early traction in retail and small-value payments.

• In terms of native transfer volume, BRZ held an absolute lead until mid-2024, but this was abruptly overtaken by cREAL in the latter half of the year. By early 2025, Celo’s advantage in transfer volume waned as BRLA grew steadily. Then, in July 2025, BBRL made a震撼 entrance: despite having a relatively limited number of active sender addresses, its launch on the XRPL (XRP Ledger) triggered explosive growth, with its share of monthly native transfer volume soaring to approximately 65%.

Unlike dollar stablecoins, whose issuance and transfers are concentrated on the Ethereum mainnet, real-backed stablecoin activity is primarily on Layer 2 networks and other public blockchains. Polygon is the dominant channel by native transaction volume and active users: in July 2025, it recorded approximately 74,000 transactions (involving 14,000 unique users), with monthly transaction volume hitting a historic high of 500 million reais (about $50 million).

Celo ranks second, holding the record for highest transfers at 213,000, a peak reached in December 2024 driven by cREAL’s rapid early adoption in retail and small-value payments. Although the number of unique payers declined in 2025,规模化重复支付流 from merchants, aggregators, and liquidity pools have kept Celo’s transaction volume at a considerable level.

XRPL has emerged as a notable new participant, experiencing explosive growth after the launch of the Brazilian real-backed stablecoin BBRL in July 2025: transfer volume jumped from over 100 in May to approximately 3,000 in July, while native transaction volume surged to about 1.16 billion Brazilian reais, signaling the formation of a new high-value channel.

The Base chain showed steady growth in 2025, peaking in June, while the BNB chain has seen shrinking market share since a significant drop in transfer volume and active addresses in 2022. The Ethereum mainnet only intermittently handles large, low-frequency transfers, playing a limited role, though BRZ tokens briefly dominated its transaction activity from late 2023 to early 2024.

Beyond raw data, Iporanga Ventures’ report highlights the practical use cases and high-value drivers of stablecoins in Brazil:

• B2B payments lead the market, with businesses using stablecoins to pay overseas suppliers or employees and then settling locally via the PIX system.

• In cross-border fund inflow scenarios, dollars are converted into Brazilian real-backed stablecoins for domestic payments.

• These stablecoins are becoming key infrastructure for Brazil’s tokenized asset ecosystem, enabling on-chain settlements without bank custody.

• In the gig economy and among SMEs, stablecoins support payroll payments, risk hedging, and capital preservation. Merchant integration solutions like CloudWalk’s BRLC and Mercado Pago’s dollar stablecoin are driving mainstream adoption.

While Brazil boasts the most diverse and mature local stablecoin ecosystem, the Mexican peso stablecoin market is taking shape around two main projects: Juno and Bitso’s MXNB and Brale’s MXNe, which have distinct development trajectories. MXNB’s circulation pattern has evolved from sporadic large-scale issuance peaks in late 2024 to a more stable and broad circulation pattern in 2025.

MXNB’s growth in 2025 marks a significant shift toward everyday use cases. In July 2025, the platform processed 179 transfers involving 70 unique senders, a 339% and 290% increase from 46 transfers and 21 senders in the same period last year.

Although transaction volume peaked in January 2025 with 14.5 million Mexican pesos (about $750,000 at the time of writing) achieved through fewer transactions, July saw 480,000 pesos (about $25,000) in volume from more small-value payments. The average transaction size dropped from approximately 28,700 pesos in July 2024 to 3,600 pesos. This shift accompanied a clear migration to Arbitrum: in 2024, about 99% of transfers occurred on Ethereum, but since Q2 2025, approximately 94% have moved to Arbitrum, making low-fee Layer 2 channels the default choice.

In contrast, MXNe, issued by Brale, has taken the opposite path by operating exclusively on the Base chain, growing into the highest-volume Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin.

Activity peaked in March 2025 with 3,367 transfers from 274 senders; although transaction frequency slowed thereafter, total transfer value continued climbing. In July 2025, 2,148 transfers from 158 senders set a new record of approximately 637.7 million pesos, pushing the average transaction size to nearly 297,000 pesos, suggesting large-scale transactions and institutional activity.

The contrast is clear: MXNB now dominates small retail payments, while MXNe focuses on large-scale settlements. Compared to Brazil’s more fragmented ecosystem, the Mexican market remains concentrated around these two issuers and a few settlement channels, but this has not hindered liquidity growth. Since mid-2025, DEX trading volumes for Mexican peso pairs have rapidly climbed to the top, signaling increasingly mature market structures.

The Latin American stablecoin market is experiencing explosive growth, with Brazil and Mexico at the forefront as their localized stablecoin ecosystems mature rapidly.

Key Data:

• In July 2025, USDT and USDC accounted for over 90% of exchange transfer volumes (up from just 60% in 2022).

• The trading volume of Brazilian real-backed stablecoins reached $906 million in July 2025 and is projected to exceed $1.5 billion for the full year.

• The combined market capitalization of Mexican peso-backed stablecoins MXNB and MXNe hit $34 million, marking a 638-fold annual increase.

Use Cases:

• 71% of Latin American users utilize stablecoins for cross-border payments, while 100% of businesses have adopted, are testing, or are planning stablecoin strategies.

• The trading volume of Brazilian real-backed stablecoins has surged 230-fold over four years. Mexican peso-backed stablecoins have diverged into two paths: retail-focused (MXNB) and large-scale settlements (MXNe).

Technology Ecosystem:

• Brazil’s top five real-backed stablecoins (BRZ, cREAL, etc.) serve B2B payments, DeFi, and other scenarios, with Polygon and Celo as the primary on-chain channels.

• Mexico’s MXNB has migrated to the low-fee Arbitrum network, while MXNe focuses on large transactions via the Base chain.

DEX Liquidity:

• cREAL once dominated the Brazilian market, but BRLA has now become the main dollar通道. The MXNB-WAVAX trading pair in Mexico peaked at $29.7 million in a single month.

• Platform binding effects are significant: Uniswap dominates, while Aerodrome (on Base链) saw MXNe trading volume surge by $25.8 million.

Summary

Author: Filippo Armani
Compiled by: Tim, PANews

PANews Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Part 3 of "The Money Layer: LATAM Crypto 2025 Report," focusing on the current state of local stablecoin development in Latin America. Below is the compiled content.

Stablecoins have become the backbone of Latin America’s on-chain economic development. Both dollar-backed and local currency-backed stablecoins have replaced volatile assets as the core of crypto adoption, sustaining multi-fold growth momentum.

Key Insights:

• In July 2025, USDT and USDC accounted for over 90% of all exchange transfer volumes, a significant increase from approximately 60% in 2022.

• Brazil leads in both the number of active local stablecoins and total trading volume. As of July 2025, the trading volume of Brazilian real-backed stablecoins reached $906 million, nearly matching the 2024 total of $910 million. Projected annual trading volume is estimated to reach $1.5 billion at the current growth rate.

• The total market capitalization of Mexican peso-pegged stablecoins (MXNB + MXNe) reached approximately $34 million in July 2025, a 638-fold increase from 1 million pesos (about $53,000) in July 2024.

• Local stablecoins on major blockchains: Polygon (BRLA, BRZ), Celo (cREAL), Base (MXNe), and Arbitrum (MXNB).

Main Text
Stablecoins have become the financial cornerstone of cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America, with applications extending far beyond speculation. Across the region, stablecoins function as savings tools, payment channels, cross-border remittance corridors, and inflation hedges, making them the most practical and widely used form of cryptocurrency. Latin America currently leads the world in real-world stablecoin adoption: according to Fireblocks’ "2025 State of Stablecoins Report," 71% of respondents use stablecoins for cross-border payments, and 100% of businesses have either launched, are testing, or are preparing stablecoin strategies. Equally important, 92% of surveyed institutions reported that their wallet and API infrastructure supports stablecoin operations, reflecting both market demand and technological maturity. For millions in Latin America, stablecoins have become digital equivalents of the U.S. dollar—accessible inflation hedges and effective means to bypass capital controls. In many cases, they are the only viable channel for holding dollarized assets.

In countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, stablecoins have surpassed Bitcoin as the preferred crypto asset for daily use, thanks to their price stability and direct peg to the U.S. dollar (Fireblocks, "2025 State of Stablecoins Report"). USDC and USDT account for over 90% of exchange transfer volumes. In Argentina, for example, 72% of crypto asset purchases on Bitso in 2024 involved these two stablecoins, while Bitcoin accounted for only 8% (Bitso 2024 data). Colombia shows a similar pattern, with stablecoins making up 48% of purchases due to restrictions on U.S. dollar bank accounts and persistent currency volatility. Brazil’s shift is even more pronounced, with stablecoin trading volume on local exchanges growing 207.7% year-over-year, far outpacing other crypto assets (Chainalysis, October 2024). Beyond transfers, 39% of crypto asset purchases in Latin America in 2024 involved stablecoins, up from 30% the previous year (Bitso 2024).

Current State of Local Stablecoin Development
Although dollar-pegged assets remain the dominant form of stablecoin application in Latin America (primarily for inflation hedging), local currency-pegged stablecoins have experienced explosive growth over the past two years. These tokens, pegged to national fiat currencies like the Brazilian real and Mexican peso, are increasingly used for domestic payments, on-chain commercial activities, and integration with local financial systems. By eliminating the cumbersome process of converting between dollars and local fiat, these stablecoins reduce costs for merchants and users while accelerating local trade settlements. For businesses, they enable direct connections to payment systems like Brazil’s PIX, facilitating instant transfers without bank involvement while meeting tax compliance requirements. In high-inflation economies, these stablecoins also serve as "bridge assets," allowing users to transact in stable local currency units while retaining the option to convert into dollars or other stores of value for risk hedging.

Brazil provides the clearest case study of this trend, with real-backed stablecoins showing staggering year-on-year growth. Transaction activity surged from just over 5,000 in 2021 to more than 1.4 million in 2024, maintaining a high of 1.2 million so far in 2025—a 230-fold increase from four years ago. The number of unique senders also grew exponentially, from fewer than 800 in 2021 to over 90,000 in 2025, an 11-fold increase since 2023 alone. On-chain native transfer volume jumped from approximately 110 million reais (about $20.9 million at the time of writing) in 2021 to nearly 5 billion reais (about $900 million) in July 2025, almost matching the 2024 total. Including data up to August 2025, the year’s total transfer volume has already surpassed that of 2024. What began as a marginal experiment has rapidly evolved into a core pillar of Brazil’s on-chain economy, with explosive growth in transaction scale, user base, and transfer value within just a few years.

As of June 2025, five different Brazilian real-pegged stablecoins are actively circulating, reducing market concentration and signaling ecosystem maturity. These include:

• BRZ, issued by fintech company Transfero, providing blockchain infrastructure solutions for banks and payment institutions in Latin America;

• cREAL, issued by the Celo blockchain, focusing on mobile-first DeFi integration;

• BRLA, developed by BRLA Digital and Avenia, serving as a compliant fiat-to-crypto bridge;

• BRL1, supported by an alliance of exchanges including Mercado Bitcoin, Bitso, and Foxbit, aiming to establish industry-wide standards;

• BBRL, issued by the Braza Group, targeting regional trade and payment scenarios.

Despite this growth, Brazilian real-backed stablecoins are still in their early stages, with a circulating supply of approximately $23 million.

According to analysis by Iporanga Ventures in their latest "Brazilian Real Stablecoin Report," the landscape is evolving rapidly. While no clear market leader has emerged yet, deeper analysis of project-tier data reveals specific areas of领先优势.

• BRLA leads in "unique remitter count," indicating the broadest retail user coverage.

• cREAL dominates in transfer volume, reflecting early traction in retail and small-value payments.

• In terms of native transfer volume, BRZ held an absolute lead until mid-2024, but this was abruptly overtaken by cREAL in the latter half of the year. By early 2025, Celo’s advantage in transfer volume waned as BRLA grew steadily. Then, in July 2025, BBRL made a震撼 entrance: despite having a relatively limited number of active sender addresses, its launch on the XRPL (XRP Ledger) triggered explosive growth, with its share of monthly native transfer volume soaring to approximately 65%.

Unlike dollar stablecoins, whose issuance and transfers are concentrated on the Ethereum mainnet, real-backed stablecoin activity is primarily on Layer 2 networks and other public blockchains. Polygon is the dominant channel by native transaction volume and active users: in July 2025, it recorded approximately 74,000 transactions (involving 14,000 unique users), with monthly transaction volume hitting a historic high of 500 million reais (about $50 million).

Celo ranks second, holding the record for highest transfers at 213,000, a peak reached in December 2024 driven by cREAL’s rapid early adoption in retail and small-value payments. Although the number of unique payers declined in 2025,规模化重复支付流 from merchants, aggregators, and liquidity pools have kept Celo’s transaction volume at a considerable level.

XRPL has emerged as a notable new participant, experiencing explosive growth after the launch of the Brazilian real-backed stablecoin BBRL in July 2025: transfer volume jumped from over 100 in May to approximately 3,000 in July, while native transaction volume surged to about 1.16 billion Brazilian reais, signaling the formation of a new high-value channel.

The Base chain showed steady growth in 2025, peaking in June, while the BNB chain has seen shrinking market share since a significant drop in transfer volume and active addresses in 2022. The Ethereum mainnet only intermittently handles large, low-frequency transfers, playing a limited role, though BRZ tokens briefly dominated its transaction activity from late 2023 to early 2024.

Beyond raw data, Iporanga Ventures’ report highlights the practical use cases and high-value drivers of stablecoins in Brazil:

• B2B payments lead the market, with businesses using stablecoins to pay overseas suppliers or employees and then settling locally via the PIX system.

• In cross-border fund inflow scenarios, dollars are converted into Brazilian real-backed stablecoins for domestic payments.

• These stablecoins are becoming key infrastructure for Brazil’s tokenized asset ecosystem, enabling on-chain settlements without bank custody.

• In the gig economy and among SMEs, stablecoins support payroll payments, risk hedging, and capital preservation. Merchant integration solutions like CloudWalk’s BRLC and Mercado Pago’s dollar stablecoin are driving mainstream adoption.

While Brazil boasts the most diverse and mature local stablecoin ecosystem, the Mexican peso stablecoin market is taking shape around two main projects: Juno and Bitso’s MXNB and Brale’s MXNe, which have distinct development trajectories. MXNB’s circulation pattern has evolved from sporadic large-scale issuance peaks in late 2024 to a more stable and broad circulation pattern in 2025.

MXNB’s growth in 2025 marks a significant shift toward everyday use cases. In July 2025, the platform processed 179 transfers involving 70 unique senders, a 339% and 290% increase from 46 transfers and 21 senders in the same period last year.

Although transaction volume peaked in January 2025 with 14.5 million Mexican pesos (about $750,000 at the time of writing) achieved through fewer transactions, July saw 480,000 pesos (about $25,000) in volume from more small-value payments. The average transaction size dropped from approximately 28,700 pesos in July 2024 to 3,600 pesos. This shift accompanied a clear migration to Arbitrum: in 2024, about 99% of transfers occurred on Ethereum, but since Q2 2025, approximately 94% have moved to Arbitrum, making low-fee Layer 2 channels the default choice.

In contrast, MXNe, issued by Brale, has taken the opposite path by operating exclusively on the Base chain, growing into the highest-volume Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin.

Activity peaked in March 2025 with 3,367 transfers from 274 senders; although transaction frequency slowed thereafter, total transfer value continued climbing. In July 2025, 2,148 transfers from 158 senders set a new record of approximately 637.7 million pesos, pushing the average transaction size to nearly 297,000 pesos, suggesting large-scale transactions and institutional activity.

The contrast is clear: MXNB now dominates small retail payments, while MXNe focuses on large-scale settlements. Compared to Brazil’s more fragmented ecosystem, the Mexican market remains concentrated around these two issuers and a few settlement channels, but this has not hindered liquidity growth. Since mid-2025, DEX trading volumes for Mexican peso pairs have rapidly climbed to the top, signaling increasingly mature market structures.