Bits and Borders

John Delaney is CEO and co-founder of Crown. Crown recently raised a $13.5 million Series A round led by Paradigm and is the issuer of BRLV - Brazil's newest and stablecoin with over 360 million BRL subscribed. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss Crown's unique approach to capturing institutional flows in Brazil's high-yield environment - namely by letting BRLV holders earn native y...

Thiago Barbosa, partner at Salles Nogueira Advogados , joins host Aaron Stanley to break down the complex and rapidly evolving landscape of crypto asset taxation and regulation in Brazil. The discussion centers on the latest major developments from the Central Bank, which is introducing stricter requirements for Virtual Asset Service Providers, and the new Receita Federal reporting mechanism calle...

In this episode, host Aaron Stanley speaks with Justin Norman, founder of The Flip, a content creator and filmmaker who documents technology adoption in emerging markets. Justin shares insights from his recent Latin American research trip exploring stablecoin adoption, which resulted in a YouTube documentary series examining markets like Argentina and Bolivia. The conversation delves into the disc...

Thomaz Teixeira, CEO of BRL1, and Ben Reid, Head of Stablecoins at Bitso, join host Aaron Stanley to discuss the BRL1 stablecoin project. BRL1 is a one-to-one Brazilian real-pegged token developed by a unique consortium of major crypto exchanges including Mercado Bitcoin, Bitso, Foxbit, and Cainvest. We explore how competitors joined forces to build shared infrastructure that reduces friction for...

After three years of waiting, Brazil's central bank has finally released comprehensive VASP regulations. In this episode, Carlos Eduardo Russo (Bluegreen) and Cesar Carvalho (Baptista Luz Advogados) join host Aaron Stanley to break down the regulatory framework that will reshape Brazil's digital asset industry. We discuss the phased authorization process, capital requirements ranging from...

Paulo David is CEO of AmFi. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss how his platform is revolutionizing access to Brazilian private credit markets through asset tokenization. As a third-time entrepreneur who previously built and sold two major fintechs including Grafeno, Paulo brings deep expertise in Brazil's capital markets infrastructure. The conversation explores how Brazil's position a...

Gui Gomes, CEO of OranjeBTC, joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss his company's mission to become Latin America's leading Bitcoin adoption catalyst following their recent listing on Brazil's B3 exchange. Gomes brings a unique perspective shaped by his time at Bridgewater Associates, where working alongside Ray Dalio on global economic power shifts crystallized his conviction that Bitcoi...

David Taylor is the co-founder of Etherfuse. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss his mission to bring tokenized sovereign debt on-chain for emerging markets. Etherfuse is building infrastructure to issue interest-bearing stablecoins backed by short-term government treasuries, providing what Taylor calls the missing primitive in crypto: a true risk-free rate that traditional finance relies on as...

Qin en Looi is managing partner at Onigiri Capital and partner at Saison Capital. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss Onigiri's plans to deploy up to US$50 million of investment capital into Brazil and Latin America. Why is this Singapore-based VC taking such an interest in Brazil? Qin en explains his thesis that the market is ripe with potential for tokenization, stablecoin, payments and D...

This episode is a live panel from Stellar's Meridian 2025 conference at Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro. The panel, hosted by BCR founder Aaron Stanley, explores stablecoin adoption for local solutions in emerging markets. Joining him are: - Sebastian Siseles, CEO of Vesseo - Ibrahim Abdul Hussein, CEO, Digibank - Camila Rioja, Executive Director of Plexus Institute - Justin Norman, founde...

Raagulan Pathy is CEO of KAST. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss his stablecoin neobank that has achieved remarkable traction across emerging markets in a short period. KAST serves as a bank-like platform for crypto-native users and global remote workers, allowing them to deposit stablecoins and crypto, earn yield, and spend through cards worldwide. Pathy revealed that KAST has reached 500,00...

Nathan Sexer is the head of Devcon and Devconnect at Ethereum Foundation, and Romina Sejas runs ETH Kipu - host of the annual ETH Latam event In this conversation we discuss how Latin America will be the center of the crypto universe this November when Devconnect, the premier Ethereum developer gathering, comes to Buenos Aires and ETH Latam comes to Sao Paulo. These events will be a coming of age...

Thamilla Talarico is Head of On-Chain Finance Growth for Brasil at Polygon Labs. She joins host Aaron Stanley live at the Stablecoin Conference in Mexico City, hosted by Bitso Business. Thamilla discusses Polygon's strategic pivot to focus on RWAs and payments, and shares her firsthand perspective working on the Brazilian Central Bank's Drex project on behalf of Ernst & Young. We dive...

This episode was recorded onsite at the Stablecoin Conference 2025 in Mexico City hosted by Bitso Business. The panel discussion explores how stablecoins have evolved from crypto trading tools to essential infrastructure for global commerce. - Monica Ramirez (Anchorage Digital) - Nick Philpott (Zodiac Markets) - Peter Wexler (Visa) - Aaron Stanley (Brazil Crypto Report) ---------------------------...

Matheus Moura is CEO and co-founder of Avenia, a stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure platform that aims to reshape money movement across the Americas. We discuss the thesis that every company will eventually become a financial services company - and how Avenia is building the infrastructure to enable this with their "one API" approach. You can connect with Matheus on Linkedin ---...

Guilherme Bettanin is the Brazil country manager for Base, the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 network that has become the largest such protocol by transaction volume and total volume locked. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss adoption on Base, use cases such as AI, DeFi and creator economy, and Base's expansion and community building efforts in Brazil and Latin America. You can connec...

Brazil's Central Bank shocked the market by removing blockchain from its signature Drex CBDC project and pivoting to a simpler vision. After driving Brazil's blockchain adoption for years, is this a rug pull or an opportunity for private sector leadership? Host Aaron Stanley is joined by Gustavo Cunha (Fintrender CEO, former banking executive) and Marcos Sarres (GoLedger CEO, Hyperledger specialis...

David Lawant and Josh Barkhordar are Head of Research and Head of Sales, respectively, at FalconX - one of crypto's largest institutional prime brokerages. We discuss the company's recent entrance into Brazil, principally via new partnerships with BTG Pactual and Mercado Bitcoin. We also talk about crypto market dynamics including the rise of digital asset treasury companies, pro-crypto re...

Alisia Painter is co-founder and COO at Botanix Labs, builder of the Botanix blockchain that serves as a Layer 2 on bitcoin. Botanix brings EVM compatibility and smart contract programmability to bitcoin, opening the door for new types of financial products and services on bitcoin. We discuss how Alisia's experiences working in Brazil introduced her to bitcoin and, more importantly, convinced...

Daren Guo is the co-founder of Reap, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin and payments infrastructure provider focused on emerging markets. We discuss how Daren's experience as an early Stripe employee helped him identify the pain points in the cross-border payments landscape, and how Latin America is now Reap's fastest-growing market. ---------------------- Brazil Crypto Report is presented by Av...

Tony Volpon is a former banking executive and deputy governor of the Central Bank of Brazil deputy governor turned crypto entrepreneur. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss his red pill moment and how he went down the bitcoin rabbit hole, the role of bitcoin in Brazil from a macro perspective and also his efforts to tokenize Brazil's real estate market through his company CF Inovação - which...

Josh Solesbury is an investor at ParaFi Capital who has extensively researched the pain points of the SWIFT correspondent banking system and the potential of stablecoin technology to revolutionize global payments. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss why cross-border payments cost 4-6% and take days to settle, how Latin America's unique market conditions make it the perfect testing ground, and w...

Thiago Rudiger, CEO of Tanssi Foundation, joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss the Tanssi network's unique approach to appchain infrastructure and and deployment Key Takeaways: - Infrastructure innovation : Tanssi addresses critical blockchain deployment barriers by reducing chain launch time from months to minutes while eliminating prohibitive upfront costs through a pay-as-you-go model - Prov...

Caio Barbosa is CEO and co-founder of Lumx, which is building B2B stablecoin payments infrastructure for Latin America. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss the company's journey from NFT infrastructure to RWA tokenization to stablecoins, and how the B2B stablecoin space is generating real value for businesses in 2025. ____________________________________________________________ Brazil Crypt...

For today's episode Aaron talks to crypto tax lawyer Daniel de Paiva Gomes about the sweeping changes proposed by Brazil’s Ministry of Finance earlier this month. We explored the changes to the IOF financial transactions tax and the relevant implications, as well as the provisional measure released by the Ministry of Finance seeks to overhaul tax treatment of crypto assets in the country. You can...