Brazil's crypto-based cross-border flows now exceed traditional capital movements, the IMF found, while Argentine banking groups advance peso stablecoins through subsidiaries to bypass the central bank ban.
The International Monetary Fund's latest Financial System Stability Assessment of Brazil delivers a head-turning data point: crypto rails now carry the majority of the country's cross-border fund transfers, having surpassed conventional channels in volume since 2017. The shift is driven almost entirely by stablecoins, which offer cheaper transfers and, in some cases, tax advantages for companies and retail users.
The finding lands alongside news that two Argentine banking groups are building peso-pegged stablecoins, even though the central bank has prohibited private banks from offering crypto services directly since May 2022. BIND Group, which manages over $2 billion in assets and owns BIND Banco Industrial, is developing its token through BEN, an in-house virtual asset service provider. The Petersen Group, which runs several regional banks, is advancing a separate DIPE product with support from crypto-as-a-service firm Lirium and has published a whitepaper.
Both groups are routing their stablecoin plans through subsidiaries rather than the banks themselves, sidestepping the central bank ban. The workaround may not be necessary for long. Argentina's central bank is reportedly considering lifting the prohibition, though the country's securities regulator has already blocked the ARGT peso stablecoin, deeming it a security offered without the required compliance.
The IMF assessment, the first such review of Brazil's economy since 2018, also flagged gaps in supervision. The fund found correlations between stablecoin demand and the S&P 500, the VIX volatility index, Bitcoin's price, exchange rates, interest rates, and tax policy shifts. Those correlations show how deeply the digital asset market has embedded itself in Brazil's broader economic structure, the fund said. The IMF called for stronger oversight including full enforcement of the Travel Rule and better asset segregation by virtual asset service providers.
Brazil's Congress is working on Bill 4308/2024, which would define legal boundaries for stablecoins, though a domestic push to avoid classifying them as electronic money is complicating the drafting. Closing the gaps, the IMF argued, will require Brazilian regulators to share reporting duties with counterparts abroad.
Ripio founder and CEO Sebastián Serrano, writing for the World Economic Forum, warned that dollar-backed coins such as Tether's USDT have taken hold in Latin America as a hedge against inflation, but that leaning on foreign-issued digital dollars erodes the tools policymakers use to manage their own money supply. His pitch is for stablecoins backed by domestic currencies instead.
The scale explains the stakes. The Digital Chamber reported $324 billion in stablecoin transaction volume across Latin America in 2025, an 89% jump year over year, with stablecoins accounting for over 90% of crypto flows in Brazil and more than 60% in Argentina. The same report found 71% of Latin American institutions already using stablecoins for cross-border payments, the highest rate of any region.
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