Episode Details

Hey everyone,

Bernardo Brites and Rafael Luz are co-founders of Trace Finance, a Brazilian cross-border payments infrastructure company.

I caught up with them at Bitso Business’ Stablecoin Conference in Mexico City last month to discuss the company’s $32 million Series A and the launch of a BRL-backed stablecoin.

Trace Finance has been building stablecoin rails for Brazil since 2019, long before the current wave of cross-border payment startups. The timing of their raise reflects growing investor conviction in the Latam corridor and a regulatory environment that is pushing serious volume toward licensed, bank-backed operators.

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Bits & Borders is Presented by Sumsub

Sumsub recently released its fourth annual State of the Crypto Industry report. The new research reveals how digital asset companies are balancing fraud prevention, regulatory pressure, and user experience as they scale in 2026. This report draws on Sumsub’s internal data from 2024–2025 and insights from 300 crypto companies surveyed outside Sumsub’s customer base.

Some of the key global highlights include:

* Crypto firms are moving away from ‘growth at all costs’, with 74% now prioritizing verification accuracy over user onboarding speed (39%).

* Despite fraud rates remaining flat at 2.2% from 2024 to 2025, crypto firms operate in a structurally riskier environment where targeted, automated and AI-driven attacks are the new normal.

* Over half (55%) of surveyed companies confirmed they experienced fraud at least once in 2025, with 15% unsure if it happened or not–emphasizing the lag between detection capabilities and growing fraud sophistication.

Key takeaways from this episode

* Trace Finance closed a $32 million Series A led by CoinFund, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Jump, Paxos, the founder of Solana, and Toly, founder of Circle, and others.

* The company is launching what it says will be the largest BRL-backed stablecoin, designed to give global companies access to Brazilian real for the first time without navigating Brazil’s strict capital controls.

* Brazil’s new PSAV regulation caps VASP-licensed crypto companies at $100,000 per cross-border transaction, effectively locking them out of large corporate flows. This is a structural advantage for Trace, which operates under a bank-adjacent structure with no transaction cap.

* The BRL stablecoin could cut FX costs for small and mid-sized importers and exporters from 300 basis points to as low as 2 basis points by pooling volume that currently sits fragmented across individual companies.

* Trace is already processing payments for some of Brazil’s largest e-commerce, streaming, travel, and mobility players, and recently joined the Mastercard Start Path program as it targets glob