Stable News is Lumx's weekly curation dedicated to tracking the major moves in stablecoins, digital infrastructure, and the future of global payments.
The week had Blockchain Rio, Latin America's largest blockchain event, as its central stage, with a strong Lumx presence across proprietary events and panels, alongside the launch of a BRL-USDC corridor on the Stellar network. In the market, Samsung and PayPal brought stablecoins closer to the consumer, Augustus raised $180 million for a global dollar bank, the US and UK deepened regulatory cooperation, and the IMF analyzed the relationship between local stablecoins and the digital dollar.
Reading time: 7 minutes
Lumx at Blockchain Rio
Between August 11 and 13, Blockchain Rio took over the city and brought together regulators, financial institutions, infrastructure providers, and global leaders around tokenization, stablecoins, and digital finance. As Latin America's largest blockchain event, it served as a snapshot of the institutional stage of the ecosystem in the region, and stablecoins were at the center of a large share of the conversations, from the finance stage to the corridors.
Lumx's presence took two forms. The first was two proprietary events, designed for small groups and close interaction. The week opened with the Welcome Rio Breakfast, held alongside the Stellar Foundation and TRM Labs — one of the first events on the official calendar, and continued the following day with the Stable Chef's Dinner, alongside BTG Pactual and Chainalysis. In both, the proposition was the same: a small table, dense conversation, and network-building within the ecosystem, away from the stage.
The second form was panels. Our CCLO, Luana Peterle, joined the Finance Stage to address a concrete question for those operating in Brazil: which path applies to each case between the technical certification of BCB Normative Instruction 701 and the reasonable assurance engagement of IN 739. Our CRO, Nathaly Diniz, moderated a panel on artificial intelligence and the future of financial institutions. And our CEO and co-founder, Caio Barbosa, moderated the panel "Agentic Payments: When AI gets a wallet" — on what changes when AI agents start holding wallets and moving money autonomously.
The week's takeaway reinforces the weight of Rio, and of Brazil, in Latin America's digital asset scene. It is one of the few environments where regulators, banks, and infrastructure players meet in the same room, and it became increasingly clear that stablecoins have become the common language of that conversation.
BRL-USDC corridor live on Stellar
In the same week, Lumx put its Stellar integration into production: an operational corridor between the Brazilian real and USDC aimed at institutional settlement in Brazil. In practice, banks, fintechs, and payment providers using Lumx's infrastructure now have access to on- and off-ramp services between BRL and USDC on the Stellar network, combining Brazil's instant payment rails with Stellar's fast, low-cost settlement. Liquidity partners anchor the corridor from day one, sustaining operational liquidity.
According to Caio Barbosa, co-founder and co-CEO of Lumx:
"Brazil has world-class payment rails and a very active stablecoin market; connecting our infrastructure to Stellar gives institutions a production-ready corridor between BRL and USDC, with the near-instant, low-cost settlement that Stellar was built for."
The corridor is already operational for institutions looking to settle payments between BRL and USDC on the network.
"The competition has moved up a layer": Caio Barbosa's analysis
In an article published on Portal do Bitcoin, Caio Barbosa connected three moves that happened almost in parallel. Visa launched a full platform for banks, fintechs, and crypto companies to operate stablecoins without building anything from scratch. Samsung demonstrated the sending and receiving of USDC inside the Samsung Wallet at Galaxy Unpacked. And Circle announced the acquisition of IBM's blockchain patent portfolio, more than 680 patent families and nearly a thousand granted patents.
The thread connecting all three is that the competition has moved out of the token and up a layer: issuing a stablecoin is no longer the differentiator, and what is at stake now is who controls the operating platform, the regulatory license, and distribution to the end user. For Brazil, the issue is immediate. The Central Bank's foreign exchange rules for stablecoins take effect on October 1; Brazilians already purchased $14.7 billion in stablecoins abroad in just the first half of 2026, more than double the figure from a year earlier; and stablecoins now account for roughly 80% of the crypto asset volume declared in the country.
Samsung Wallet to add stablecoin support, including USDC
In brief:
At Galaxy Unpacked (July 22), Samsung announced that Samsung Wallet will gain native stablecoin support, displaying a mockup featuring USDC
No confirmed date, issuer, or blockchain
Coming alongside the Galaxy Card and building on the Coinbase integration, which reaches 75 million Galaxy owners in the US
Samsung announced that Samsung Wallet will support stablecoins natively, making the company one of the first major smartphone manufacturers to integrate the asset directly into the device. The move reinforces the logic of distribution at scale: when the stablecoin sits alongside the card and the ID in the wallet a person already uses, adoption no longer requires the user to seek out an exchange.
PayPal expands its stablecoin and AI payments bet
In brief:
In Q2, PayPal highlighted stablecoins, agentic payments, and identity as strategic fronts
Revenue of $8.68 billion (above consensus), with an $81 million crypto-related adjustment
The PayPal World platform moved roughly $200 million between Venmo and PayPal
PayPal reaffirmed that it is expanding into agentic payments, stablecoins, and identity, backed by its payments network and risk infrastructure. A global incumbent placing these themes at the center of its strategy signals that they are already part of the roadmap for those moving real volume.
Augustus raises $180 million for a stablecoin-ready "global dollar bank"
In brief:
$180 million round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Tiger Global
Building a federally chartered clearing bank that connects traditional rails (Swift, ACH, SEPA) and stablecoins, rather than issuing its own token
Has conditional OCC approval and already counts Kraken as a client
Augustus raised $180 million to build a federally chartered clearing bank designed around stablecoins. By connecting stablecoins directly to a regulated bank, the company treats crypto infrastructure as an upgrade to correspondent banking, with an expansion focus on markets where dollar access is more restricted, including Latin America.
US and UK deepen regulatory cooperation on crypto following the GENIUS Act
In brief:
At the 13th meeting of the bilateral financial working group (July 8), regulators discussed stablecoins, market structure, tokenization, and payments
A joint statement on August 4 reinforced GENIUS Act implementation and cross-border cooperation
The UK is reassessing its stablecoin rules as the US moves ahead
The two countries reaffirmed their commitment to regulatory cooperation on digital assets, with US authorities updating their UK counterparts on GENIUS Act implementation. With no new measures announced, the meeting consolidated the transatlantic coordination tone followed in recent editions.
IMF: local stablecoins could become gateways to the digital dollar
In brief:
Dan Katz of the IMF warned that local-currency stablecoins may end up facilitating migration to digital dollars
On the same blockchain, conversion via DEXs, pools, or P2P removes FX activity from banks and dealers
He called for on/off-ramps and on-chain exchange points to be brought within the regulatory perimeter
The IMF warned that local-currency stablecoins, designed to contain dollarization, may end up accelerating demand for the digital dollar, due to liquidity, network effects, and cross-border acceptance. The institution recommended bringing on-ramps, off-ramps, and on-chain exchange points into the regulatory perimeter.
This was Stable News, a weekly curation to keep you up to date on the latest stablecoin developments around the globe.
