Visa's Director of Digital Currencies for Latin America and the Caribbean, Antônia Souza, made it clear this week: stablecoins and Brazil's instant-payment system PIX aren't fighting for the same turf. Speaking about the region's fast-growing crypto scene, Souza said the two serve different purposes — PIX for everyday real-time payments, stablecoins for cross-border flows and storing dollars. The distinction matters as Brazil now has more crypto investors than its B3 stock exchange, a sign of how deeply digital assets have penetrated the market.
Why stablecoins and PIX aren't rivals
Souza pushed back on the idea that stablecoins threaten instant-payment systems like PIX. Instead, she argued they're complementary. Visa is developing the Visa Connector, a payment initiator that helps kick off PIX transactions, treating instant-payment rails and stablecoin rails as two sides of the same coin. The goal isn't to replace one with the other but to let them work together — stablecoins for settlement and cross-border, PIX for the point of sale.
Visa's $7 billion stablecoin settlement bet
Visa's stablecoin settlement pilot has hit a $7 billion annualized run rate, Souza revealed. The system lets issuers and acquirers settle international obligations directly in stablecoins without converting to fiat first. That's a big deal for cross-border payments, where traditional settlement can take days. Visa now runs over 140 stablecoin card programs globally, mostly operated by fintechs. In Latin America, Lemon Cash is a key example, and Puerto Rico has become a major hub for these programs.
Colombia's workaround
Not every country has a PIX. In Colombia, where no large-scale instant-payment system exists, a peso-backed stablecoin is already being used for instant payments. Souza pointed to this as a case where stablecoins fill a gap that traditional infrastructure hasn't addressed. It's a practical solution, not a theoretical one.
The convergence ahead
Souza also warned against forcing stablecoins into every use case. She said the industry should focus on problems only stablecoins can solve. But she predicted a major shift over the next five years: convergence of instant payments, digital wallets, tokenized assets, stablecoins, and AI. Specifically, she sees AI agents paying on behalf of users with stablecoins — a scenario that would require the interoperability, security, and compliance that stablecoins still lack today. Visa is betting that building those bridges now will pay off when that future arrives.
