Ripple bets on Brazil as RLUSD and XRP traction builds

Brazil is rapidly emerging as a central pillar of Ripple’s global expansion strategy, as the firm rolls out a full-stack blockchain financial infrastructure and sees growing adoption of its stablecoin, RLUSD, and native token, XRP, across the country’s financial sector.

On March 17, the company announced that Brazil would host one of its biggest blockchain rollouts. 

Ripple builds a full blockchain platform for banks and fintech companies in Brazil

Ripple sees Brazil as a natural place to set up shop and expand its blockchain services, given the country’s large financial system and its faster-than-any-other-region adoption of digital payments.

Millions of people and businesses in Brazil use digital payments for everyday transactions, and the country is also a safe haven for startups and financial tech companies building apps for payments, lending, digital banking, and cross-border transfers. Additionally, the country has clear rules on digital assets and crypto services that make it easier for companies to test new financial tools freely. 

Similarly, Pix, the Central Bank’s instant payment system, is among the most widely used worldwide and has encouraged people and businesses to trust digital payments more.

These are just a few of the major reasons Ripple believes Brazil is a gateway to the entire Latin American region, and the company’s president highlighted this opportunity during discussions about its strategy in Latin America. 

“Latin America has always been a priority market for Ripple — not just because of the scale of the opportunity, but because Brazil has built one of the most advanced and forward-thinking financial ecosystems in the world.”

To support this vision, Ripple is introducing a new blockchain platform that integrates Ripple Payments, Ripple Custody, the RLUSD stablecoin infrastructure, Ripple Prime brokerage services, and Ripple Treasury tools. 

The company will combine these tools to enable financial institutions, such as banks, to manage the entire digital asset lifecycle in one place, rather than using multiple vendors for each task. 

Several financial institutions, such as Banco Genial, Braza Bank, Nomad, Azify, Attrus, and Frente Corretora, have already started using Ripple’s infrastructure to improve liquidity across the financial system.

Moreover, the company invested heavily in acquisitions and infrastructure upgrades over the past few years to facilitate its move into Brazil. Ripple acquired corporate treasury infrastructure company GTreasury, prime brokerage platform Hidden Road, custody and treasury automation technology company Palisade, and Rail, a platform that allows users to hold and exchange fiat currencies and stablecoins.

These acquisitions allow Ripple to build a complete blockchain financial system in Brazil by combining payments, custody, brokerage, treasury management, and stablecoin services, positioning the country as a major center for blockchain finance in Latin America.

RLUSD and XRP boost crypto payments and liquidity in Brazil

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin and the XRP token will also become major tools for crypto payments across Brazil as more financial institutions connect to the company’s systems.

In some countries, like Brazil, local currencies experience price swings, so many people and businesses prefer stablecoins, such as RLUSD, because they aren’t affected by delays in traditional banking systems. 

A number of crypto platforms and financial institutions in the country, including Foxbit, Mercado Bitcoin, Ripio, Attrus, Banco Genial, and Braza Bank, have started incorporating RLUSD into their systems, broadening the stablecoin’s availability across the region.

However, some people have raised concerns about RLUSD’s impact on XRP, as market watchers believe the stablecoin could eventually replace XRP.

Yet, experts in the XRP Ledger community explain that stablecoins and XRP work differently to support each other inside the Ripple network, rather than compete for resources. 

For example, Brazil’s Braza Bank issued its BBRL stablecoin on the XRP Ledger, meaning the network uses XRP as a bridge asset when users exchange BBRL for other currencies or assets. This structure highlights how stablecoins provide price stability as they represent real currencies, while XRP provides liquidity by connecting different markets and currencies together. It also shows how stablecoins and XRP complement each other to enable the network to process payments quickly across borders.

Interestingly, when Ripple announced its expansion into Brazil, XRP surpassed Binance’s BNB in market capitalization and became the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in the world, trading at around $1.51, up roughly 8.5 percent from the previous week. The token even reached a $1.60 earlier this week while BNB saw smaller gains during the same period, indicating rising interest in Ripple’s ecosystem.

Similarly, data from CoinGlass shows open interest in XRP derivatives rose to around $2.82 billion, indicating stronger conviction among traders as more investors place bets on future price movements.

Ripple also wants to apply for a Virtual Asset Service Provider license from the Central Bank of Brazil to expand its services across the country while meeting the regulatory standards required of financial institutions.

Ripple’s relationship with Brazil began in 2020, when the company explored opportunities to support digital financial infrastructure in the country, and continued in 2024, when it launched its payment services in Brazil through a partnership with Mercado Bitcoin.

There’s a middle ground between leaving money in the bank and rolling the dice in crypto. Start with this free video on decentralized finance.