Trump targets Brazil's payments system while dollar stablecoins are quietly overtaking country's payments

The U.S. volition enforce a 25% tariff connected astir Brazilian goods connected July 22, its archetypal tariff nether a Section 301 strategy the Trump medication revived aft the Supreme Court struck down its earlier import taxes.

The lawsuit marks the archetypal clip Washington has utilized Section 301, the commercialized authorization traditionally deployed against issues specified arsenic intelligence spot theft, subsidies and marketplace access, to people a country's home outgo system.

“Today’s enactment is indispensable to code these unfair commercialized practices to guarantee American workers and companies tin vie connected a level playing field,” said Ambassador Jamieson Greer in a statement.

Among the practices Washington cites is Pix, Brazil's state-run instant-payment system, utilized by much than 90% of Brazilian adults and present handling much transactions successful the state than recognition and debit cards combined. The U.S. Trade Representative argues that Pix disadvantages American outgo firms specified arsenic Visa and Mastercard, citing a regularisation requiring fiscal institutions with much than 500,000 progressive accounts to connection it to individuals escaped of charge.

“The Brazilian cardinal slope encourages usage of Pix implicit different services by mandating that participating institutions connection Pix for escaped to individuals and by capping the interest those institutions whitethorn complaint businesses for Pix transactions,” The U.S. Trade Representative wrote connected X.

While Visa and Mastercard don't interruption down their marketplace stock oregon gross from Brazil, Pix has grown rapidly since its November 2020 launch. More than 170 cardinal individuals person utilized the system, which processed astir 7 cardinal transactions worthy astir R$3 trillion ($590 billion) successful June, according to cardinal slope data.

Pix handled 42.9 cardinal transactions successful the 2nd fractional of 2025, compared with 23.8 cardinal crossed credit, debit and prepaid cards, underscoring its monolithic standard of dominance successful the country’s payments system.

Pix vs stablecoin

The quality comes arsenic Washington grows progressively acrophobic astir efforts by Brazil and different BRICS countries to trim reliance connected dollar-based outgo infrastructure. Brazil made local-currency settlement and planetary outgo platforms a argumentation precedence during its 2025 BRICS presidency, though officials said the bloc was not processing a communal BRICS currency.

Ironically, request for the U.S. dollar successful the state doesn’t look to person subsided, arsenic the U.S. dollar already circulates wide successful Brazil’s integer system via blockchain-based outgo rails.

Dollar-linked stablecoins already relationship for astir 90% of crypto transaction measurement successful Brazil, astir of it utilized for payments and settlement, according to tax authorization data.

Brazil processes betwixt $6 cardinal and $8 cardinal successful crypto each month, overmuch of it utilizing dollar-denominated stablecoins alternatively of the country's ain currency.

However, adjacent arsenic dollar stablecoins person proliferated, Brazil's cardinal slope has moved to bounds their relation successful regulated cross-border payments. Resolution 561, effectual October 1, is acceptable to barroom outgo firms from settling cross-border payments successful stablecoins oregon different crypto, closing a back-end transmission that had routed reais done dollar tokens. The cardinal slope has formed stablecoins arsenic a menace to monetary sovereignty, taxation enforcement and anti-money laundering controls.

Pix present faces unit from some sides aft Washington named it a commercialized barrier, portion Brazilian regulators shield it from increasing contention from dollar-backed stablecoins.

Pix, however, whitethorn not beryllium competing with stablecoins.

“In practice, they are complementary," Rodrigo Caggiano, laminitis of Brazilian real-world plus monitoring level RWA Monitor, told CoinDesk. “Pix has addressed home instant payments well, portion stablecoins grow what is imaginable by operating connected blockchain networks.”

U.S. unit is apt to accelerate Brazil's regulatory statement connected stablecoins and integer fiscal infrastructure, Caggiano said, arsenic the cardinal slope builds its ain tokenized-settlement system, Drex, connected akin programmable rails.