17.2% of Brazilians now own crypto, nearly triple the 7.4% who hold stocks. Most buyers use bank apps, not exchanges—sidestepping new licensing rules taking effect October 30.
Alpha Score of 35 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, weak value, poor quality, moderate sentiment.
Crypto has overtaken stocks as an investment in Brazil. A new survey shows 17.2% of the population, roughly 29 million people, report owning or having owned digital assets. That is more than double the 7.4% who hold stocks.
The figures come from a poll of 2,004 people fielded May 11 to 14 by Datafolha and Paradigma. The margin of error is two percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Crypto now ranks as the fifth most-common asset in the country, ahead of gold, foreign currency and bank CDBs. It trails only savings accounts, real estate, cash at home and investment funds. Coinbase, Hashdex and the Brazilian crypto trade group ABCripto funded the research.
Most of that growth is not flowing through crypto-native infrastructure. 83% of holders said they got in through their bank's own app rather than a dedicated exchange, nearly four times the share who used a specialized platform. Self-custody wallets, where a user holds their own keys, were used by just 26%.
That detail lands two months before Brazil's central bank starts enforcing a licensing regime built for exchanges and custodians. Starting October 30, virtual asset firms operating in Brazil must hold a license, keep between 10.8 million and 37.2 million reais in capital depending on the category, and file independent compliance audits. Banks distributing crypto through their own apps sit outside that category, since they are already regulated as banks. The country's fastest-growing pool of crypto users is entering through a door the new rules were not built to police.
The gap runs along income lines. More than three-quarters of crypto holders earn up to three minimum wages, and participation is highest among people earning below a single minimum wage. Men invest at roughly twice the rate of women, 23.6% versus 11.3%.
The expansion is happening alongside a broader push to monitor crypto-related financial activity in Brazil. Authorities have increasingly focused on suspected illicit flows. One recent case drew attention after Brazil froze $2 billion in assets connected to an alleged crypto laundering network.
This is the second edition of the survey. The first, published in March 2025, put crypto ownership at about 16% of Brazilians, or 25 million people. It already ranked the country among the world's top adopters by user count, trailing only the United States, China, Indonesia, Turkey and Nigeria.
The rise to 17.2% this year is incremental. What has moved more sharply is awareness: 66.4% of Brazilians now recognize what cryptocurrency is, up 10 percentage points from last year.
None of this guarantees the October deadline goes smoothly. A regime designed around licensing crypto-native platforms may do little to touch the channel where adoption is actually growing. Regulators will have to decide whether bank-distributed crypto needs its own scrutiny once the current rules take effect.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.