Crypto and stablecoins, explained for Brazilians

USDC and USDT let you hold, receive, and send dollars without a US bank account. Unlike a regular dollar account, a non-custodial wallet means your balance is yours alone — no institution can freeze it or apply exchange controls. The shift is simple: instead of converting dollars to reais at the point of payment, you keep dollars until you need them and convert on your schedule.

The main use case is moving dollars across borders cheaply and fast. A stablecoin remittance settles in seconds on a public network, with 0% IOF, at a fraction of what a SWIFT Wire costs. You can send to any external wallet — or convert straight to reais and pay out via Pix — without waiting for business hours or correspondent banks.

A secure wallet does not require you to understand blockchain. Your balance is kept as USDC and USDT in a wallet only you control, with built-in recovery so you never have to manage a seed phrase. The result is the safety of self-custody with the simplicity of a normal app — and the ability to send to any wallet in the stablecoin ecosystem.

Traditional cross-border transfers trigger IOF: 3.5% on international card purchases and on most outbound remittances (1.1% only for investment remittances), and 0.38% on money received from abroad. Stablecoin transfers on a public network are not a foreign-exchange operation under current Brazilian rules (Lei 14.478/2022), so they carry 0% IOF. You move digital dollars directly, not through a conversion event.

USDC (Circle) and USDT (Tether) are the two largest stablecoins by market cap, each designed to hold a one-to-one peg with the US dollar. Both issuers hold dollar reserves and publish regular attestation reports. Your Ruvo balance can sit in either, in a wallet only you control, giving you flexibility across the stablecoin ecosystem. You can send and receive from any wallet or exchange that supports them.

Opening a Ruvo account takes minutes and requires a Brazilian CPF (or CNPJ for businesses). You can fund your balance by converting reais via Pix, receiving a Wire or ACH from abroad, or receiving digital dollars from any external wallet — all free to receive. From there, you hold, send to any wallet, convert back to reais via Pix, or spend on the card.