Circle has enabled support for local bank transfers for USD Coin (USDC) in Brazil and Mexico through their national payment systems, PIX and SPEI, respectively, according to a Sept. 17 press release.
The integration will allow users to access USDC directly from Brazilian Reais (BRL) and Mexican Pesos (MXN) at competitive rates, reducing transaction times from days to minutes.
Moreover, the move eliminates the need for international wire transfers and conversions to US dollars before accessing USDC, potentially saving businesses time and money. Circle aims to make USDC more attractive to companies operating in Latin America, where cross-border flows are predominantly dollar-denominated.
Mexico is among the US’ largest trading partners, with over $800 billion in annual goods and services trade. In Brazil, 95% of the country’s $640 billion annual foreign trade in goods is conducted in dollars, with direct US-Brazil trade totaling approximately $120 billion yearly.
The US-to-Mexico remittance corridor is the world’s largest, reaching $63 billion in 2023, up 7% from 2022 and accounting for up to 4% of Mexican gross domestic product (GDP).
A big deal for Circle
Brazil and Mexico are the two largest economies in Latin America.
According to Statista data, Brazil’s GDP will be $2.3 trillion in 2024, while Mexico’s will be $2 trillion. Notably, real-time electronic payments play a significant role in both countries.
Data from the Central Bank of Brazil reveals that over 29 billion transactions were made using PIX in the country from January to June 2024. This is roughly 7 billion over the number of transactions using credit and debit cards in the same period, according to a report by the Brazilian Association of Credit Card and Services Companies.
Meanwhile, despite showing a relatively small number, Mexicans made 3.8 billion real-time electronic transactions via SPEI in 2023. This is equivalent to 5.6% of all financial movements in the country last year, according to Statista and ACI Worldwide.
Additionally, Brazil and Mexico occupy the 10th and 14th spots, respectively, in terms of global crypto adoption, as shown by a preview from Chainalysis’ “2024 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report.”