Kraken Bets on Payments to Expand in Brazil's Crowded Crypto Market

The US-based exchange wants to use stablecoins and payment services to reach customers beyond existing crypto investors, Felipe Maurano, who leads Kraken's expansion in Brazil, told Sandmark in an interview at the Blockchain.RIO 2026 conference. 

The push comes as other exchanges including Binance, Mercado Bitcoin, Coinbase and OKX compete for Brazilian crypto users, while banks and fintechs are also expanding digital asset offerings. 

Rather than competing solely on trading, Kraken is betting on the convergence of exchanges, stablecoins and payments. The strategy is supported by parent company Payward's agreement to acquire Reap Technologies, a stablecoin-focused card and payments infrastructure company, for up to $600mn in cash and stock. The deal, announced in May, is expected to close in the second half of 2026 subject to regulatory approvals.  

Payward's acquisition of Reap also gives Kraken access to payments infrastructure already serving Brazil, including stablecoin-enabled corporate cards and cross-border payments. Reap has been hiring in Latin America, including Brazil, and describes the Latam-to-Asia corridor as one of the main routes for stablecoin business payments. The Hong Kong-based company says it serves about 22,000 businesses internationally. 

"What we have now is the opportunity to turn something that was previously an investment into a means of payment," Maurano said. "That allows us to move beyond being just an investment platform and become a company with payment capabilities." 

Payments push 

The distinction is increasingly relevant in Brazil, which received $318.8bn in crypto value between July 2024 and June 2025, almost one-third of Latin America's total, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.  

Mercado Bitcoin, one of Kraken's main local competitors, claims more than 4.5mn customers and has expanded beyond crypto trading into areas including tokenization and payments. Founded in 2013, it is one of Brazil's earlier crypto exchanges and recently secured a $20mn investment from stablecoin issuer Tether, also exploring the potential overlap between tokenized assets and stablecoins transactions.  

Kraken's regional strategy also extends to Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. For Kraken, the opportunity is to use payments to broaden the addressable market beyond people buying crypto primarily as an investment. 

"I don't want only the customers who are already in crypto. I want to reach more people," Maurano said. 

His benchmark for adoption is deliberately ordinary: paying for a coffee with crypto through a card. "The goal is to get to the point where you simply tap your card and pay for your coffee."  

To achieve that, however, Kraken will have to deal not only with other crypto companies but with Brazil's existing payments infrastructure, led by the Pix system. Created and operated by the country's central bank, the instant-payment system processed nearly 80bn transactions in 2025 and is used by about 170mn people. For stablecoins to gain a meaningful role in everyday domestic payments, they will have to find a place alongside an infrastructure that already allows Brazilians to move reais instantly, around the clock and at little or no cost. 

Fabrício Tota, vice president of crypto business at Mercado Bitcoin, told Sandmark in a previous interview that Pix and stablecoins solve different problems and are more likely to complement than compete with each other. 

"Pix is one of the best domestic payments infrastructures in the world," Tota said. "Stablecoins solve a different challenge: turning money into a natively digital asset that can move globally, 24 hours a day, over blockchain networks." 

He said consumers could use Pix to move reais within Brazil while turning to stablecoins for cross-border transfers, international settlement or access to digital financial applications. 

Regulation raises stakes 

In addition to dealing with competition and learning to how to co-exist with the nation's payments infrastructure, Kraken is also preparing for Brazil's evolving regulatory framework. Central bank rules governing virtual-asset service providers took effect on 2 Feb, bringing exchanges and other crypto companies under requirements covering authorization, customer protection and anti-money laundering controls.  

The regulator added another layer on 7 Aug, approving anti-fraud rules that from 1 Jan 2027 will require a 24-hour hold on certain crypto transfers of more than $10,000 sent abroad or to self-custody wallets.  

Kraken's Maurano sees regulation as a potential competitive advantage rather than simply a constraint. 

"It is challenging to get a licence, even Google would find it challenging. But I see regulation more as an opportunity for us, because we are better organized and have significantly more resources than many of the smaller players in the market," he said.  

Kraken has been expanding its Brazilian presence since launching local operations in 2025, but has not disclosed its local customer base. Kraken's parent, Payward, was valued at $20bn in a funding round in late 2025 and subsequently filed for a US initial public offering (IPO) - although the listing has since been put on hold amid weaker market conditions. 

Existing crypto providers in Brazil have until 30 Oct to apply for authorization from the central bank under rules that took effect in February. Firms that miss the deadline must stop providing virtual-asset services within 30 days. Asked about a back-up plan if Kraken failed to secure its path to authorization, Maurano was unequivocal: "Plan B is Plan A." 

Kraken's bet is that the same regulatory requirements raising the cost of competing in Brazil could favour larger companies able to invest in compliance while the market shifts beyond trading towards stablecoin-based payments and other financial services. 

Reporting by Danyella Colares.