Brazil's Crypto Purchases Plunge 80% in July

The contrast is striking. In July, Brazilian residents purchased “only” 572 million dollars worth of crypto, according to the balance of payments report published on August 27 by the Central Bank. A month earlier, the counter peaked at 2.6 billion. Within thirty days, the plunge thus approaches 80%. Coincidence of calendar? Hard to believe: July marked the very first full month of application of the new governance and anti-money laundering control requirements imposed on local platforms.

Stablecoins account for most of the measure

The category monitored by the Central Bank measures the net acquisition of crypto with corresponding liabilities, essentially stablecoins. It appears in the balance of payments under the chapter of “other investments”.

The strengthening of banking supervision over cryptos dates back to November 2025: resolutions 519 to 521 create a local status for virtual asset service providers, the SPSAV, and impose on platforms the same anti-money laundering obligations as banks.

Fernando Rocha, head of the institution’s statistics department, explains in Valor Econômico that this decline in transactions reflects a phase of reorganization of the virtual assets market, in a context of enhanced regulation and supervision. According to him, platform governance and anti-money laundering procedures are among the main factors of this slowdown.

Since February 2, actors must be authorized, identify wallet holders and document the origin and destination of funds, with strict caps on transfers passing through unauthorized foreign intermediaries. The banking prudential framework will come into force in January 2027.

A nuance is necessary: part of this decline is probably less due to a collapse in demand than to a shift of flows towards now authorized channels. No official breakdown currently allows to confirm this.

Over the year, the trend remains largely positive

The July slowdown does not erase the underlying trajectory: 15.25 billion dollars were invested between January and July, versus 7.61 billion during the same period in 2025. Gabriel Galipolo, governor of the institution, estimates that about 90% of the country’s crypto activity goes through stablecoins, most often used as a means of payment rather than a speculative bet.

The Central Bank is not trying to curb crypto adoption. It mainly wants flows to go through channels it can monitor, which explains why stablecoins attract most of its attention.

See you at the end of September: the next Central Bank report will say if July marked a hiccup or the beginning of a lasting plateau. Another deadline to watch is October 1, with the entry into force of resolution 561, which will prohibit payment in stablecoins in electronic exchange. Fintechs will then have to turn to classic exchange, a change of rails reminiscent of MiCA’s arrival in Europe.