Circle Integrates USDC With National Payment Systems of Brazil and Mexico
Date: 2024-09-18 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BUSINESS
According to an announcement on September 17, the stablecoin is now available in the banking systems of both countries. The integration allows businesses to directly access USDC through local banks, bypassing international wire transfers. Circle noted that businesses can use the stablecoin for corporate purposes and offer it to retail customers.
“Eliminating international wire transfers can significantly reduce the time to access USDC from days to minutes, freeing up capital that has been locked in lengthy settlement processes,” the company said.
The integration makes USDC available in local currencies such as the Brazilian real (BRL) and Mexican peso (MXN). It also means the digital dollar is integrated with Brazil’s PIX and Mexico’s SPEI.
In 2020, Brazil’s Central Bank launched PIX, an instant payment system that allows transactions to be made in real time 24 hours a day using only a phone number. As of August 2024, the system had more than 168 million users.
Similarly, Mexico’s SPEI system allows users to send money between banks in real time through mobile apps or online banking. The interbank system in Mexico has been in existence for 20 years and processed nearly 3.3 million transactions in 2023.
Circle’s move into Latin America is aimed at increasing participation in cross-border transactions, one of the popular use cases for stablecoins. According to the company, remittances from the United States to Mexico totaled $63 billion in 2023, up 7% from 2022 and representing up to 4% of Mexico’s economy.
Mexico is also one of the United States’ largest trading partners, with more than $800 billion in goods and services exchanged annually. As for Brazil, about 95% of its $640 billion in annual foreign trade is in dollars, including about $120 billion in direct trade with the U.S.
According to DefiLlama, USDC has a market cap of $35 billion at the time of writing, behind Tether's $118 billion.
