Lumx vs BVNK

Which should you choose, Lumx or BVNK?

Choose Lumx if the money touches Latin America. A payroll platform paying contractors in Brazil needs PIX behind a BRL account with agência and conta. A marketplace collecting from Mexican sellers needs a CLABE in each seller's name. A remittance app paying into Colombia needs PSE and Bre-B. BVNK documents none of these rails: its payment-methods reference covers ACH, Fedwire, FedNow, RTP, SEPA, Faster Payments and SWIFT, and its marketing pages do not mention Brazil, Mexico, Colombia or Argentina. A LATAM payout on BVNK today is a SWIFT wire in USD.

Choose BVNK if your business is an enterprise in the US, UK or EU and the product is an account, not a corridor. BVNK stores fiat and stablecoin in one wallet, converts between them on a locked quote, issues stablecoin-backed cards through its Marqeta partnership, pays rewards on idle USDC, and can run the whole stack self-hosted under your own licence through Layer1. Its licensing covers UK and Malta EMIs, a MiCA CASP licence with EU passporting and US money transmitter licences, and since August 2026 it is a Mastercard company.

Teams that need both run BVNK for the US, UK and EU account layer and Lumx for the Latin American legs. The two settle USDC on Ethereum, Polygon and Base and USDT on Ethereum, Polygon and Tron, so a balance moves between them on-chain.

What is BVNK?

BVNK is an enterprise stablecoin payments infrastructure company founded in 2021 and headquartered in London (BVNK Services Limited). Mastercard announced its acquisition of BVNK on 17 March 2026 and completed it on 3 August 2026; BVNK now operates as a Mastercard subsidiary. Its platform groups six capabilities: Send (stablecoin and fiat payouts), Receive (payment links and channels), Store (unified fiat and stablecoin wallets), Convert (quote-based FX), Spend (card issuing against stablecoin balances, with Marqeta since September 2026) and Earn (rewards on idle balances). It offers three delivery models: Direct, Embedded and Self-managed, the last being Layer1, a self-hosted, self-custody version of the stack. Per docs.bvnk.com, fiat rails cover USD (ACH, ACH Same Day, FedNow, Fedwire, RTP, SWIFT), EUR (SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Instant, SWIFT) and GBP (Faster Payments, SWIFT), with named virtual accounts in those three currencies. It supports USDC on Arbitrum, Base, BSC, Ethereum, Polygon and Solana, USDT on BSC, Ethereum, Polygon and Tron, plus EURC, PYUSD and USDG. BVNK holds EMI licences in the UK and Malta, a MiCA CASP licence and US money transmitter licences, and states 40+ licences and registrations in total. It reports more than $39 billion in annualized volume and names Worldpay, Deel, Corpay, Xapo Bank and LemFi among its customers.

What is 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.

Lumx was founded in 2022 in Rio de Janeiro and is backed by BTG Pactual, the largest investment bank in Latin America. Custodial wallets run in production, segregated per customer, on Ethereum, Polygon, Base and Tron, with Stellar for USDC on-ramps in BRL. In Brazil, Lumx SPSAV Ltda operates under Article 88 of Central Bank Resolution 520/2025; in the US, Lumx US OP LLC is a FinCEN-registered MSB (#31000316459619). Lumx processes more than $2B in annualized payment volume (as of September 2026). Customers include Nomad, Logcomex and Conta Simples.

How do Lumx and BVNK compare?

Model. Both sell one API that custodies balances, converts between fiat and stablecoins on a locked quote, and pays out over bank rails with KYB/KYC inside. The difference is where the rails are. BVNK's payment-methods reference lists US, eurozone and UK schemes and nothing else; its named accounts are vIBANs and ABA numbers in USD, EUR and GBP, and end-customer sub-accounts exist only in EUR and only for regulated financial institutions. Lumx issues a named account in each of six currencies, three of them Latin American, and runs PIX, SPEI, PSE and Bre-B behind them. On the rails both run (ACH, Fedwire, SEPA, Faster Payments, SWIFT) the products are close; BVNK adds ACH Same Day, FedNow, RTP and SEPA Instant, and runs SWIFT in EUR and GBP where Lumx runs it in USD only.

Custody. Both custody in production. BVNK holds fiat and stablecoin balances in its own wallets under its EMI licences, with USDC on six chains and USDT on four, and adds two things Lumx does not: rewards on idle USDC (Earn) and a self-managed model (Layer1) in which a licensed institution runs the stack under its own custody. Lumx custodies USDC and USDT per customer on Ethereum, Polygon, Base and Tron, with balances that pay out directly to local rails. For a LATAM fintech the practical difference is not who holds the keys but what the balance can do next: on Lumx it becomes a PIX or SPEI payout; on BVNK it becomes a SWIFT wire.

Pricing and compliance. Neither publishes a rate card. BVNK negotiates enterprise contracts, states a monthly volume minimum for its customers, and lets partners add their own markup on each transaction. Lumx charges a monthly platform fee plus usage-based per-transaction and virtual account fees, with transparent FX on locked quotes and no pre-funding, and does not set an enterprise volume floor. On regulation the two sit in different regimes: BVNK holds EMI licences in the UK and Malta, a MiCA CASP licence with EU passporting and US money transmitter licences, and is now owned by a card network; Lumx operates under Article 88 of Central Bank Resolution 520/2025 while its VASP authorization is processed and is a FinCEN-registered MSB in the US, running EUR and GBP through banking partners rather than its own EU licence. Both run KYB/KYC with Travel Rule handling. Lumx adds Sumsub token sharing for instant approvals, Chainalysis on-chain monitoring, and purpose codes and third-party relationship types on every payment, which Brazilian and Mexican reporting requires.

When is Lumx the better fit?

• Your customers are in Brazil, Mexico or Colombia. Lumx issues named accounts in BRL (agência and conta), MXN (CLABE) and COP, and pays out over PIX, SPEI, PSE and Bre-B. BVNK documents no rail and no account in any of the three. See USDC to BRL, USDC to MXN and USDC to COP.

• You collect locally in Latin America. A BRL account with bank details, a CLABE and a COP account in the customer's name receive from any local bank. See BRL to USDC.

• You are a fintech, not an enterprise. Lumx accounts open in a sandbox on sign-up and contracts are sized to usage. BVNK's sandbox is requested through an account manager and its customer profile carries a stated monthly volume minimum.

• You need local reporting fields. Purpose codes and holder relationships (supplier, employee, subsidiary) are modeled on every Lumx payment.

• Your end customers need a named account in EUR or GBP without being a regulated institution. Lumx issues named EUR (USDC to EUR) and GBP (USDC to GBP) accounts to business customers; BVNK's end-customer sub-accounts are EUR-only and gated to regulated financial institutions.

Where does BVNK fit?

BVNK does several things Lumx does not do, and this page should say so plainly.

• Mastercard ownership. Since August 2026 BVNK is a Mastercard company, with the balance sheet, network relationships and card rail that come with it.

• Card issuing. Stablecoin-backed cards through the Marqeta partnership announced in September 2026. Lumx has no card product.

• Yield. Earn pays rewards on idle USDC balances. Lumx does not offer yield.

• Self-managed custody. Layer1 lets a licensed institution run BVNK's payments stack self-hosted, under its own custody and licence. Lumx offers only its own custodial model.

• More chains and tokens. USDC on six chains including Solana, Arbitrum and BSC, plus EURC, PYUSD and USDG, and custody of BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and other native assets. Lumx settles USDC and USDT on four chains plus Stellar for BRL on-ramps.

• US and EU rail depth. ACH Same Day, FedNow, RTP and SEPA Instant, and SWIFT in EUR and GBP as well as USD.

• Licensing footprint. UK and Malta EMIs, a MiCA CASP licence with EU passporting and US money transmitter licences, against Lumx's Brazilian VASP authorization in progress (BCB Res. 520/2025, Art. 88) and US MSB.

Can you use Lumx and BVNK together?

Yes, and for a company with both enterprise and Latin American flows it is the natural design. BVNK holds the US, UK and EU account layer, cards and yield; Lumx holds the BRL, MXN and COP accounts and the PIX, SPEI, PSE and Bre-B payouts. Both settle USDC on Ethereum, Polygon and Base and USDT on Ethereum, Polygon and Tron, so a balance moves between them as an on-chain transfer, not an FX event. Both lock a quote before converting and both send signed webhooks on status changes, so the reconciliation model is the same on each side.

How do you migrate from BVNK to Lumx?

1. Map BVNK customers to Lumx customers and destinations. Both run KYB for businesses and KYC for individuals. Lumx adds a holder relationship (SUPPLIER, EMPLOYEE, SUBSIDIARY and others) on third-party destinations and a purpose code on each payment; collect those fields up front.

2. Open a sandbox at dashboard.lumx.io. New accounts start in a sandbox with mock banking partners; magic numbers on taxId force approved, rejected or pending verification. No account manager request is needed.

3. Add the Latin American accounts. Keep the USD, EUR and GBP named accounts you have and provision BRL, MXN and COP accounts in each customer's name for the corridors BVNK did not cover.

4. Move balances out of BVNK wallets. Lumx custodial wallets are provisioned per customer on Ethereum, Polygon, Base and Tron; fund them with an on-chain transfer of USDC or USDT.

5. Swap the quote flow. Both lock a rate before converting. On Lumx, request a quote (30 seconds free, one or five minutes for a fee), show it, and confirm within the window.

6. Subscribe to webhooks and run parallel. Send Idempotency-Key on every mutation, reconcile both ledgers for one cycle, then move production traffic. Read the docs or talk to us.