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Kraken Bets on Payments to Grow in Brazil's Crowded Crypto Market
14 Aug 2026, 13:38
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Kraken is pushing into stablecoin-based payments to expand its Brazilian business beyond crypto trading, as exchanges, banks and fintechs all compete for a share of Latin America's biggest digital asset market.
Kraken is looking beyond crypto trading to grow its presence in Brazil, betting that stablecoins and payment services can help it reach customers who have never bought digital assets before. Felipe Maurano, who leads the exchange's Brazil expansion, said the goal is to move from being purely an investment platform to one with real payment capabilities, giving the company a foothold in a market where global exchanges, local platforms and banks are all fighting for users.
The strategy leans heavily on Kraken parent company Payward's planned acquisition of Reap Technologies, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments and card infrastructure firm serving roughly 22,000 businesses worldwide. The deal, worth up to $600 million in cash and stock, is expected to close in the second half of the year and would give Kraken access to payments infrastructure already active in Brazil, including stablecoin-linked corporate cards and cross-border payment rails. Reap has flagged the Latin America-to-Asia corridor as one of its busiest routes for stablecoin business payments.
Brazil is a natural target for this kind of push. The country received an estimated $318.8 billion in crypto value between mid-2024 and mid-2025, close to a third of all crypto activity across Latin America, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Kraken faces stiff competition there from Binance, Coinbase, OKX and homegrown player Mercado Bitcoin, which claims more than 4.5 million customers and has already pushed into tokenization and payments of its own, recently landing a $20 million investment from stablecoin issuer Tether.
Maurano's benchmark for success is deliberately mundane: getting people comfortable enough to tap a crypto-linked card to pay for a coffee. To get there, Kraken will need to coexist with Brazil's Pix instant-payment system, run by the central bank, which processed nearly 80 billion transactions in 2025 and is used by roughly 170 million people. Executives at rival Mercado Bitcoin have argued Pix and stablecoins solve different problems more than they compete, with Pix handling domestic transfers and stablecoins better suited to cross-border settlement.
Regulation adds another layer of complexity. Brazil's central bank rules for virtual-asset providers took effect in February, and a fresh anti-fraud measure approved in August will require a 24-hour hold on large crypto transfers sent abroad or to self-custody wallets starting in 2027. Existing providers have until the end of October to secure authorization or stop operating. Maurano framed tighter rules as an opportunity rather than a burden, arguing that better-resourced players like Kraken are positioned to absorb the compliance costs that smaller competitors may struggle to match.
The strategy leans heavily on Kraken parent company Payward's planned acquisition of Reap Technologies, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments and card infrastructure firm serving roughly 22,000 businesses worldwide. The deal, worth up to $600 million in cash and stock, is expected to close in the second half of the year and would give Kraken access to payments infrastructure already active in Brazil, including stablecoin-linked corporate cards and cross-border payment rails. Reap has flagged the Latin America-to-Asia corridor as one of its busiest routes for stablecoin business payments.
Brazil is a natural target for this kind of push. The country received an estimated $318.8 billion in crypto value between mid-2024 and mid-2025, close to a third of all crypto activity across Latin America, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Kraken faces stiff competition there from Binance, Coinbase, OKX and homegrown player Mercado Bitcoin, which claims more than 4.5 million customers and has already pushed into tokenization and payments of its own, recently landing a $20 million investment from stablecoin issuer Tether.
Maurano's benchmark for success is deliberately mundane: getting people comfortable enough to tap a crypto-linked card to pay for a coffee. To get there, Kraken will need to coexist with Brazil's Pix instant-payment system, run by the central bank, which processed nearly 80 billion transactions in 2025 and is used by roughly 170 million people. Executives at rival Mercado Bitcoin have argued Pix and stablecoins solve different problems more than they compete, with Pix handling domestic transfers and stablecoins better suited to cross-border settlement.
Regulation adds another layer of complexity. Brazil's central bank rules for virtual-asset providers took effect in February, and a fresh anti-fraud measure approved in August will require a 24-hour hold on large crypto transfers sent abroad or to self-custody wallets starting in 2027. Existing providers have until the end of October to secure authorization or stop operating. Maurano framed tighter rules as an opportunity rather than a burden, arguing that better-resourced players like Kraken are positioned to absorb the compliance costs that smaller competitors may struggle to match.