Paying a supplier in China from Brazil with stablecoins means using the stablecoin for the leg that leaves Brazil and paying the supplier in US dollars over SWIFT into its bank account. The stablecoin replaces the expensive part of the route, the conversion out of reais and the wait for a correspondent chain to start moving. For a supplier in mainland China it does not replace the supplier's bank, because that supplier is not allowed to receive it. A supplier incorporated in Hong Kong is a different case, and importers pay those in USDT today.
Where the supplier is incorporated decides the shape of everything below. Get it wrong and the importer ends up sending USDT to a wallet a mainland company should not be holding.
The corridor is large. Imports into Brazil from China reached a record 70.9 billion dollars in 2025, up 11.5 percent on 2024, and China was the origin of 25.3 percent of everything Brazil imported, according to the Brazil-China Business Council's trade bulletin for January 2026. The usual way to pay them is a foreign exchange contract at a Brazilian bank and a SWIFT wire that can pass through one or more intermediary banks before it reaches the supplier.
Mainland suppliers get dollars, Hong Kong suppliers can get USDT
On February 6, 2026, the People's Bank of China and seven other agencies, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange among them, published the Notice on Further Preventing and Handling Risks Related to Virtual Currencies, Yinfa [2026] No. 42. It names Bitcoin, Ether and Tether as virtual currencies with no legal tender status that should not circulate as money, classifies exchange between fiat and virtual currency inside mainland China as illegal financial activity, and states that foreign entities may not provide virtual currency services to parties in mainland China in any form. It also bars anyone, inside or outside China, from issuing a stablecoin pegged to the renminbi without approval. The notice repealed the 2021 notice that held the previous ban, Yinfa [2021] No. 237, and took effect on the day it was published.
For an importer, the consequence is simple. A supplier in mainland China that takes USDT as payment for an invoice is using it as money, which is what the notice says it cannot be, and the risk of that sits with the supplier and with the importer's supply chain, not with the blockchain. For a mainland supplier, its USD account at the bank is the destination that works.
Hong Kong is a different legal system, and the February notice is written for mainland China. Hong Kong has its own Stablecoins Ordinance, which has licensed the issuance of fiat-referenced stablecoins since August 1, 2025, under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. That regime licenses issuers. Paying a Hong Kong supplier in USDT still happens, and we run those payments for clients: the USDT leaves the importer's wallet and lands in a wallet the Hong Kong company controls, with no SWIFT leg at all.
The test is the entity on the invoice. A Hong Kong trading company that sells goods made in Guangdong can take USDT. The factory in Guangdong behind it cannot, and paying it directly in USDT because the trading company asked is exactly the case to refuse.
What the Brazilian side has to get right
Moving money out of Brazil is a foreign exchange question before it is a technology question. Law 14.286 of December 29, 2021, in its Article 3, restricts foreign exchange operations to institutions authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB). A stablecoin route sits under a separate activity: payments and transfers with virtual assets, defined in Article 76A of BCB Resolution 277/2022, which Resolution 521/2025 introduced, and run by a PSAV (Prestadora de Serviços de Ativos Virtuais, Brazil's virtual asset service provider authorization). The full stack of rules, including the April 2026 change that kept stablecoins out of the eFX cycle, is in our guide to stablecoin regulation in Brazil.
Three things follow for the importer. The payer is the importing company itself, identified by its CNPJ (the Brazilian company taxpayer ID) and verified through KYB (know your business, the verification of a company and its owners). The payment is declared for what it is, an invoice for goods. And the beneficiary is the supplier named on that invoice, not a sister company, an agent or a friend of the sales representative who offers a better rate.
The sequence, step by step
1. Fund in reais. The importer sends reais over Pix (Brazil's instant payment system, run by the Central Bank) and they convert into USDC or USDT. The BRL to USDC page shows the live rate. The conversion is the cheap leg of the trip, and it is where the importer decides when to buy dollars.
2. Hold or pay straight away. The stablecoin can sit in the importer's custodial wallet until the invoice is due. An importer that pays several suppliers a month can fund once when the rate suits and settle invoices from that balance, the same approach as in our guide to BRL to USDC for treasury.
3. Register the supplier as a destination. Legal name exactly as the bank holds it, USD account number, SWIFT code of the receiving bank, bank name and address, and the supplier's own address. The relationship is declared as a supplier.
4. Pay out. For a mainland supplier, the stablecoin converts into dollars and leaves as a SWIFT wire to the supplier's account, declared as a trade payment. The USDC to USD page shows that leg of the rate. For a Hong Kong supplier paid in USDT, this step is a transfer to the supplier's wallet address, and step 5 does not exist: the payment lands when the blockchain confirms it, in minutes.
5. The supplier's bank credits the account (SWIFT only). SWIFT settles in one to five business days. The time is set by the intermediary banks between the sender and the supplier's bank, not by the stablecoin.
Steps 1 and 2 are where the stablecoin earns its place. For a mainland supplier, steps 4 and 5 are ordinary correspondent banking, which has not become any faster because someone upstream used a stablecoin.
What to ask the supplier for before the first payment
The pro forma invoice or commercial invoice, with the beneficiary on it. The name on the invoice and the name on the bank account have to be the same entity. Some Chinese manufacturers invoice through a Hong Kong trading company; if they do, that trading company is the beneficiary, and its name goes on the destination.
The receiving bank's SWIFT code and a USD account. A renminbi account cannot take the payment. Ask for the USD account explicitly, because a supplier that usually receives in renminbi may send the wrong number by habit.
Any intermediary bank the supplier's bank requires. The receiving bank may want dollars to arrive through a named correspondent. The supplier's finance team knows whether it does; the sales contact usually does not.
For USDT, the wallet address and the network, in writing. A Hong Kong supplier paid in USDT gives an address on a specific blockchain, such as Tron or Ethereum. Confirm both on the company's letterhead or through a second channel, and send a small test amount first. A payment to the wrong address or on the wrong network is the one mistake that cannot be recalled.
A named person in the supplier's finance team. When a wire is held, it is the supplier's bank that asks questions, and the answer has to come from someone who can read a SWIFT message.
What it costs and how long it takes
The cost has three parts. The spread on the conversion from reais into the stablecoin, which is the number worth comparing between providers. A flat fee per payment on each rail. And the fees intermediary banks deduct from a SWIFT wire, which neither the sender nor the provider controls, and which is why a supplier sometimes receives a little less than the invoice.
On timing, the Pix leg settles in seconds and the conversion follows. The SWIFT leg takes one to five business days, and wires submitted after the cut-off wait for the next business day. The honest comparison with a bank foreign exchange contract is not the SWIFT leg, which is the same wire. It is everything before it: the contract, the bank's own spread, and the days between deciding to pay and the wire actually leaving. The importer's saving shows up there, in a narrower spread and in choosing the day to buy dollars, not in the transit time.
I stopped recommending that importers pay mainland Chinese suppliers in USDT before the February notice made it explicit. The request usually comes from the supplier, framed as a discount for a faster payment, and the importer sees a saving. My answer is to pay the same invoice in dollars to the supplier's bank, because the discount is small and the risk lands on a counterparty whose regulator has already classified that payment as illegal. If a mainland supplier can only take stablecoins, that tells you something about the supplier.
When a stablecoin route is the wrong tool
When the supplier needs renminbi in the account. We do not settle in renminbi. A supplier that must receive local currency needs a route that ends in a renminbi transfer, and a bank that offers one is the better choice.
When a mainland supplier asks for USDT to its own wallet. Say no, for the reasons in the first section, whatever the discount. If the request is to pay a Hong Kong company that issues the invoice, the answer can be yes.
When the invoices are small and infrequent. A SWIFT wire carries intermediary deductions on every payment. Below a few thousand dollars, those fixed costs can erase what the conversion saves, and batching invoices is worth more than changing rails.
When the payment may need to be recalled. Once the wire leaves, getting it back depends on the supplier agreeing to return it. That is true of any SWIFT payment, and a USDT transfer to a Hong Kong wallet is final the moment it confirms.
What a supplier payment to China looks like on Lumx
Lumx is stablecoin payments infrastructure for businesses that move money between Latin America and the rest of the world: one API to collect, hold, convert, and pay out in BRL, MXN, COP, USD, EUR, and GBP or in USDC and USDT, over local rails such as PIX, SPEI, PSE, ACH, FEDWIRE, SEPA, and Faster Payments, with SWIFT and on-behalf-of payments and collections (POBO and COBO) in USD, EUR, and GBP, plus named virtual accounts, custodial wallets, and KYB/KYC built in.
On the global payments API, the importer is a verified customer with its own wallet. The reais arrive over Pix and convert at a floating rate or at a rate locked for up to five minutes. A mainland supplier becomes a destination on SWIFT in USD with the holder relationship SUPPLIER, and the off-ramp carries the purpose TRADE_TRANSACTIONS. A Hong Kong supplier paid in USDT is a transfer from the importer's wallet to the supplier's external wallet address, on Tron, Ethereum or Polygon. The API refuses a self-transfer purpose on a supplier destination, and a purpose that does not match the underlying activity can trigger an RFI (request for information, a compliance hold that asks for a document before a transaction clears), so the invoice is the document to have ready. USD over SWIFT has a 3:00 PM Eastern cut-off and settles in one to five business days, and each status change of the payout arrives as a webhook event.
There is one rule the importer should know before the first payment: every payment has to be the customer's own money paying the customer's own supplier. An importer cannot use its account to pay suppliers on behalf of another company that has not been onboarded. That is the nested payments rule in the Lumx documentation, and it is the same test a correspondent bank applies. For how the reais leg connects to the dollar leg, see our explainer on what a stablecoin corridor is.
Methodology and sources
Yinfa [2026] No. 42 was read in Chinese on pbc.gov.cn on September 28, 2026, and the provisions above come from that text. The Hong Kong regime was checked on the HKMA's stablecoin issuers page on the same date. Trade figures are from the Brazil-China Business Council bulletin for January 2026, which reports Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services data. Law 14.286/2021 was read on planalto.gov.br. BCB Resolutions 277/2022 and 521/2025 are cited by number and year, with the article reference taken from our analysis of Resolution 561/2026. Lumx rails, cut-offs, holder relationships, purpose codes and external wallet transfers were checked against the public documentation on September 28, 2026. That importers pay Hong Kong suppliers in USDT through Lumx today comes from our own operations.
Verified on September 28, 2026. Operational context, not legal, tax, or investment advice.
Cover photo: Ali Mkumbwa on Unsplash.
Can a supplier in mainland China receive USDT or USDC?
It should not. Since February 6, 2026, Yinfa 2026 No. 42 classifies fiat and virtual currency exchange inside mainland China as illegal financial activity and bars foreign entities from providing those services to parties there. Pay the supplier in US dollars to its bank account instead.
Can a Hong Kong supplier be paid in USDT?
Yes, and importers do it today. The February notice is written for mainland China, and Hong Kong has its own legal system, with a Stablecoins Ordinance that licenses issuers. The Hong Kong company on the invoice receives USDT in its own wallet, with no SWIFT leg.
Which currency does the supplier receive?
A mainland supplier receives US dollars by SWIFT into its USD account. A Hong Kong supplier receives either US dollars by SWIFT or USDT in its wallet. Lumx does not settle in renminbi, so a supplier that needs renminbi in the account needs a different route.
How long does a payment to a Chinese supplier take?
The Pix funding and the conversion take minutes. The SWIFT leg to the supplier's bank takes one to five business days, depending on the intermediary banks on the route and on whether the wire left before the cut-off. A USDT payment to a Hong Kong supplier lands in minutes.
What documents should the importer keep?
The commercial invoice naming the supplier as beneficiary, the supplier's banking details as registered, and the payment confirmation. The invoice is also what answers a compliance request if the payment is held for review.
