Conduit, a stablecoin-focused cross-border payments provider, said on Thursday it has teamed up with Brazil’s Braza Group for real-time foreign exchange (FX) swaps between the Brazilian real and major foreign currencies using stablecoins.
The service allows users to convert Brazilian real to U.S. dollars or euros and settle transactions in minutes with stablecoins —a sharp departure from the traditional FX infrastructure, where settlement can take up to three days, according to the press release.
Braza, which owns Brazil’s largest FX bank and processed $67 billion in transactions last year, launched its own real-pegged stablecoin BBRL on XRP Ledger earlier this year. Braza will mint BBRL tokens when a payment originates in Brazil.
Conduit then swaps the BBRL for dollar- or euro-pegged stablecoins and delivers the funds to the recipient’s bank or wallet abroad.
Stablecoins—cryptocurrencies whose values are typically pegged to fiat currencies—have emerged as one of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors. Their use in cross-border payments and remittances is expanding rapidly, particularly in developing markets where traditional banking channels can be costly or unreliable.
Global bank Citi recently projected the sector could grow from $250 billion to $1.6 trillion by 2030. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers are also pushing forward stablecoin-specific regulation, encouraging businesses and financial institutions to explore ways to use stablecoins for payments.
“Creating seamless on-ramps between fiat and digital currencies, together with on-chain stablecoin FX swaps, has the potential to completely transform how cross border payments are made,” said Conduit CEO Kirill Gertman.
Conduit provides infrastructure that bridges blockchains and traditional financial rails. The Boston-based startup raised $36 million last month and reported $10 billion annualized transaction volume.
Read more: Conduit Raises $36M to Expand Stablecoin-Based Cross-Border Payments Beyond SWIFT