🙌 You can listen to BCR on your favorite podcast platform YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
🔥 Join the BCR English language Telegram group to continue the conversation
Olá pessoal!
This week’s episode is with Matheus Moura, co-founder and CEO of Avenia (formerly BRLA Digital), where we discuss how the company is building out cross-border payments and financial infrastructure across Latin America.
We touch on the need for this infrastructure under the thesis that every company will eventually become a financial services company in some capacity. We also explore the role of stablecoins in the embedded finance landscape and why Latin America has emerged as ground zero for this transformation.
Avenia is also a sponsor of Brazil Crypto Report so be sure to check them out 🔥
BRLA Digital → Avenia
Avenia started off as a quantitative crypto hedge fund, but quickly transitioned in 2023 to focus on financial infrastructure upon realizing the strong product market fit opportunity in the crypto payments space. What started as an idea to create dollar savings accounts for Brazilians has evolved into a comprehensive platform that enables any company to offer financial services through a single API integration.
The company's rebrand to Avenia (from "avenida" - avenue in Spanish/Portuguese) perfectly captures their mission: building financial highways for seamless money movement across borders. This infrastructure approach addresses a critical market need, as evidenced by the fact that 90% of Avenia's current revenue comes from cross-border FX transactions.
Key Takeaways
The End of "Not Moving Money": Matheus describes how traditional solutions like Wise rely on maintaining cash pools across markets to avoid actual money movement. Stablecoins enable real-time, low-cost transfers that eliminate the need for inefficient balance sheet management.
Latin America's Perfect Storm: The region's combination of instant payment systems (Pix, SPEI), sophisticated user expectations for real-time transfers, and complex correspondent banking relationships creates ideal conditions for stablecoin adoption.
Embedded Finance at Scale: Avenia's vision extends beyond FX to recreating all financial primitives (credit, investing, escrow) through stablecoins, enabling any company to become a financial services provider. Matheus sees this as similar to how cloud computing has democratized tech infrastructure over the last 20 years.
Regulatory Readiness: Brazil's central bank's collaborative approach to innovation, combined with upcoming VASP regulations, positions the country as a leader in crypto-friendly financial infrastructure development.
Regional Expansion Strategy: Success in Brazil provides the foundation for Avenia’s expansion across Latin America, with Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico identified as priority markets based on client demand and regulatory frameworks.
Pushing Forward
Avenia's roadmap includes expanding payment methods, card issuance capabilities, and additional financial primitives while maintaining focus on reducing complexity for companies entering Latin American markets. As Matheus noted, the goal is creating an environment where "everyone can pay like a local in any country of Latin America" regardless of their native currency.
The company's approach represents a fundamental shift in how we think about cross-border payments - from managing liquidity pools to enabling actual money movement through blockchain rails. For financial services stakeholders, Avenia's growth trajectory offers valuable insights into the future of embedded finance in emerging markets.
I really enjoyed this conversation with Matheus and I hope you do as well. You can connect with him on Linkedin.
Have a great week everyone,
-AWS
Brazil Crypto Report is presented by
Avenia is the programmable financial infrastructure for Latin America. Connect to local payment rails like PIX, SPEI and CBU — using stablecoins as settlement — and unlock real-time, cross-border payments without banks, FX desks, or SWIFT.
Whether you're building a wallet, a crypto card, or a global treasury solution, Avenia gives you the APIs and compliance-ready infrastructure to scale in LatAm. Move money between BRL, USD, MXN and more — fast, transparent, and fully on-chain.
P2P.me is the fastest way to buy and sell crypto in Brazil using Pix: direct, secure, and fully onchain.
Backed by Multicoin and Coinbase Ventures, P2P.me offers a compliant on and off ramp with, ZK-KYC, and no hidden fees.
You can easily use P2P.me to pay PIX QR codes in Brazil using your USDc balance. Topup, scan and pay.
Visit br.p2p.me to get started and earn $50 per operation limit.
