Stablecoin liquidity via PIX & SPEI* in Brazil & Mexico

For providers of financial services looking to serve Brazil‑Mexico trade, the current payment infrastructure still relies on an aging banking system. Domestic schemes such as PIX and SPEI* deliver near‑instant payments for online payments at home, yet every international payment must jump through a maze of correspondent banks in the United States. The result is a patchwork of duplicated security measures, inconsistent regulatory compliance checks, and limited payment options that undermine cost effectiveness.

In 2024, PIX processed 64 billion payment transactions, proving how modern railways can transform a local payments landscape. Still, cross‑border transactions that involve multiple currencies face spread mark‑ups and high interest rates on Nostro balances. Each transfer crawls through siloed financial systems, magnifying operational risk as businesses operate across borders.

Regulatory checklist: What the new charter will demand

Fragmented regulatory frameworks further slow settlements. Every bank in the chain must reconcile KYC and AML data, often manually, before releasing funds. This friction keeps working capital frozen for up to 48 hours—an eternity compared with the seconds it takes to settle domestically—and erodes liquidity just when enterprises need it most.

What’s missing is a single, digital layer that links local rails to global liquidity, ensuring real‑time FX while satisfying jurisdiction‑specific controls. Bridging that gap is the first step toward a unified, secure, and cost‑efficient future for Brazil–Mexico cross‑border payments.

Stablecoins: The digital bridge for cost‑efficient FX

The global market cap of stablecoins rocketed from USD 3 billion in 2019 to USD 162 billion in 2025. This surge reflects their role as a correspondent banking alternative: instead of maintaining costly Nostro/Vostro accounts, PSPs hold tokenised fiat and unlock PSP liquidity solutions that avoid prefunding costs in Brazil and elsewhere. In the Brazil ↔ Mexico corridor, BRL → USDC → MXNB clears with spreads under 10 basis points, compared with 40‑65 bps through legacy rails, giving PSPs the edge in USDC BRL to MXN conversion.

Stablecoins issued by audited stablecoin issuers such as Circle or Paxos provide transparency, while their on‑chain portability enables multi‑provider liquidity strategies across order books and AMMs. For PSPs, that translates into 24/7 access to capital and seamless scaling of instant B2B payments LatAm.

PIX + SPEI*: Instant rails ready for on‑chain liquidity

PIX and SPEI* both settle in seconds, but their true super‑power emerges when integrated via a single API that tokenises BRL into USDC and pays out MXN via SPEI*. This flow delivers T+0 visibility, eliminates banking windows, and guarantees SPEI* 24/7 payouts for businesses in Mexico. Together they offer the backbone for friction‑free PIX and SPEI* payments routed through stablecoins.

Brazil ↔ Mexico liquidity in under ten minutes

The end‑to‑end journey from checkout in São Paulo to settlement in Mexico City unfolds in three ultra‑fast steps. First, the PSP aggregates incoming receipts in Brazilian real and immediately exchanges the BRL for USDC at wholesale rates through local liquidity partners. With the funds now tokenised, the USDC travels on‑chain, crossing borders in seconds before being swapped into MXNB inside Bitso Business order books—maintaining spreads under 10 basis points throughout the hop.

Finally, Bitso Business triggers a SPEI* instruction that deposits Mexican pesos straight into the supplier’s CLABE account, ready for same‑day use. Internal benchmarks show that this full loop—collection, conversion, and payout—closes in just 7–10 minutes, a quantum leap compared with the 48‑hour average typical of legacy SWIFT corridors.

Tangible business impact

• USD 12 billion processed by Bitso Business in 2024, including USD 6.5 billion in U.S.–Mexico remittances—over 10 % of the world’s largest corridor.
• PSP adopters report ≈0 % reconciliation failures and free up 20 % of capital by eliminating prefunding.
• PIX P2B volume surged +94 % YoY, topping BRL 1 trillion monthly—evidence of corporate appetite for real‑time FX settlement.
  
  

Compliance by design

Regulatory alignment is not an after‑thought—it is the architectural backbone of any correspondent banking alternative. Bitso Business approaches compliance as code, embedding controls at each hop of the BRL → USDC → MXNB journey so that PSPs can unlock real‑time FX settlement without inheriting legal risk.

Multi‑jurisdiction KYC/AML is the first pillar. Every end user is screened against OFAC, UN, and EU sanctions lists and dynamically risk‑scored under the CNBV’s Instituciones de Fondos de Pago Electrónico rulebook (Art. 58)—the same standards applied by tier‑1 Mexican banks. In Brazil, our partner IFs follow Central Bank Circular 3.979/20, mirroring FATF Recommendations 10, 11 and 16. Automated identity verification feeds a shared ledger so PSPs avoid duplicate onboarding while still meeting local AML thresholds.

The second pillar is transaction‑level KYT (Know Your Transaction). Smart heuristics label every on‑chain hop, and high‑risk patterns—mapped to the BCB’s risk taxonomy (R1–R5)—trigger stepped‑up due diligence. This live monitoring keeps stablecoin flows fluid yet traceable, satisfying the Travel Rule in both jurisdictions. An encrypted attestation layer transports beneficiary data off‑chain, meeting Brazil’s LGPD and Mexico’s Ley Federal de Protección de Datos.

Third, audited stablecoin issuers underpin asset integrity. Circle, Paxos, and Stably publish monthly reserve attestations under SSAE‑18/ISAE‑3000. Bitso Business’s treasury logic checks those proofs before accepting liquidity, guaranteeing that PSP balances remain backed 1:1—no rehypothecation risk.

For operational resilience, the platform undergoes semi‑annual penetration tests (ISO 27001 scope) and maintains segregated hot, warm, and cold wallets, each covered by a crime‑insurance policy underwritten by Lloyd’s of London. Disaster‑recovery RTO clocks in under one hour, meeting Banxico’s 2025 SPEI* cyber‑resilience mandate.

Finally, a governance layer provides a secure implementation checklist that maps each API endpoint to its regulatory control—for example, /fx/quote aligns with CNBV Art. 73 price‑disclosure rules, whereas /payout/spei follows Banxico Circular 14/2024. This blueprint lets developers integrate PIX API and SPEI* rails while ticking every audit box upfront, shortening legal due‑diligence cycles from months to weeks.

Collectively, these design choices deliver a turnkey compliance stack, letting PSPs focus on scaling instant B2B payments LatAm while regulators see a transparent, well‑governed payment flow.

Ready to ditch legacy FX rails and embrace stablecoin liquidity? Explore regulatory frameworks, integration checklists, and real-world success stories in our eBook. Download “Liquidity in Transactions: How LATAM Businesses Power Cross-Border FX” and build your competitive edge today.

*NVIO México enables direct access to SPEI and delivers payment services fully compliant with Mexican regulation. NVIO Pagos México, S.A.P.I. de C.V., IFPE (“NVIO México”) is authorised and regulated by the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV). Learn more at nvio.mx/terms.