The crypto casino market has matured enough to produce its own internal rivalries. This is no longer about whether crypto gambling can work — that question was answered years ago. The question now is which crypto-native platform does it best. Stake.com has held the crown as the most recognised name in crypto gambling for some time, built through massive marketing spend and a distinctive product. ZunaBet launched in 2026 with a platform specifically designed to challenge where Stake falls short — particularly around welcome bonuses, loyalty transparency, and game library scale. Both platforms run on crypto. Both serve the same core audience. The comparison comes down to which one delivers more value to the player sitting behind the screen.

Stake.com: The Name That Defined Crypto Gambling

Stake.com went live in 2017 and rapidly became the face of crypto casino gaming worldwide. Operating under a Curaçao license, the platform achieved massive visibility through sponsorship deals with the UFC, Drake, and multiple football clubs. That marketing firepower, combined with a distinctive product, turned Stake into a brand that transcended the crypto gambling niche and entered mainstream awareness.

The gaming experience at Stake centres partly around its proprietary Stake Originals. Titles like Crash, Plinko, Mines, Dice, and Limbo have become signature games within the crypto gambling community — simple in design but addictive in execution. Third-party games from providers like Pragmatic Play, Hacksaw Gaming, and others supplement the originals, though the total library has not prioritised reaching the same volume levels as some newer platforms.

The sportsbook is genuinely strong. Football, basketball, tennis, MMA, cricket, boxing, and a broad selection of other sports receive thorough treatment. Esports betting has been an area of particular strength with markets covering CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, and more. The sports product is well-integrated and competitive at the highest level.

Stake accepts multiple cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, LTC, DOGE, and others, with fiat available in select markets. Transactions process at blockchain speed without platform fees. The payment experience is consistent with what crypto-native users expect.

Loyalty operates through a VIP programme that combines automatic progression at lower levels with an invitation-based system for the upper tiers. Lower-level players receive modest rakeback and occasional reload bonuses. Top-tier VIPs enjoy personalised hosts, custom deals, and significantly higher rakeback. The gap between what lower and upper tiers receive has been a consistent source of frustration for players who wager regularly but below whale thresholds.

Notably, Stake does not provide a welcome bonus. No deposit match. No free spins. New players begin with exactly what they deposit and nothing more.

ZunaBet: Built to Win the Crypto Player’s Attention

ZunaBet debuted in 2026 under Strathvale Group Ltd, holding an Anjouan gaming license and built by a team with over 20 years of combined industry experience. The platform was constructed on crypto-native infrastructure with a deliberate focus on addressing the specific shortcomings that players have identified in existing crypto casinos. The result is a platform that matches the crypto foundations of competitors like Stake while exceeding them on content volume, bonus value, and reward transparency.

The game library immediately establishes scale. ZunaBet hosts 11,294 titles from 63 providers. Pragmatic Play, Evolution, Hacksaw Gaming, BGaming, and Yggdrasil lead the roster, supported by more than fifty additional studios. Slots dominate the count, but live dealer tables and RNG games carry genuine variety. The breadth of the catalog gives ZunaBet a content advantage that even the most established crypto casinos have difficulty matching.

Sports betting was treated as a primary product from the outset. Football, basketball, tennis, hockey, and major global sports get full market depth. Esports are permanently integrated with dedicated markets on CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Valorant. Virtual sports and combat sports expand the coverage. The sportsbook competes directly with Stake’s offering and adds coverage that ensures evolving betting interests are fully addressed.

The welcome package is one of ZunaBet’s most visible differentiators. Up to $5,000 plus 75 free spins across three deposits provides new players with a substantial starting advantage. First deposit earns 100% up to $2,000 with 25 spins. Second earns 50% up to $1,500 with 25 spins. Third earns 100% up to $1,500 with 25 spins. In a market where Stake offers nothing to new players, this package alone shifts the opening value proposition decisively in ZunaBet’s direction.

Payment infrastructure supports over 20 cryptocurrencies — BTC, ETH, USDT across multiple chains, SOL, DOGE, ADA, XRP, and many others. No fees. Fast blockchain withdrawals. The payment experience matches the standard that Stake established, ensuring no ground is lost on this front.

Native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and MacOS deliver a consistent experience across every device. The dark-themed responsive interface loads quickly. Live chat support runs 24/7.

The Bonus Question: Generosity vs Austerity

The welcome bonus comparison could not be more straightforward. Stake offers none. ZunaBet offers $5,000 plus 75 free spins.

A new player choosing between these platforms faces a simple calculation. Deposit at Stake and start with your deposit amount. Deposit at ZunaBet and start with up to double your deposit plus free spins. The second scenario provides more games played, more chances to explore, and more runway before a player is operating purely on their own funds.

Stake has long argued that its product speaks for itself and that welcome bonuses are unnecessary. ZunaBet takes the position that rewarding players from the very first interaction is fundamental to the relationship. For the majority of players who appreciate tangible value on arrival, ZunaBet’s approach resonates more strongly.

Loyalty: Invitation Walls vs Open Doors

Both platforms reward ongoing play, but the accessibility and transparency of those rewards differ sharply.

Stake’s VIP programme delivers impressive value at the top. High-volume players who reach the upper invitation-only tiers receive personalised attention, custom rakeback arrangements, and exclusive benefits. The problem is that most players never reach those tiers. The lower levels offer modest returns, and the criteria for advancing into the premium VIP levels remain opaque. For the average regular player, the VIP system can feel like watching a party through a window they cannot open.

ZunaBet opens the door to everyone from the start. The dragon evolution loyalty programme publishes six clear tiers — Squire at 1% rakeback, Warden at 2%, Champion at 4%, Divine at 5%, Knight at 10%, and Ultimate at 20%. A dragon mascot called Zuno evolves alongside the player. Higher tiers bring up to 1,000 free spins, VIP club access, and double wheel spins.

No invitations required. No hidden thresholds. No ambiguity about what each level provides or what it takes to get there. Every player knows their current rakeback rate and can see exactly what advancing to the next tier will earn them. For the broad middle of the crypto gambling market — players who are active and loyal but not wagering at extreme volumes — ZunaBet’s transparent system delivers better accessible value than Stake’s top-heavy VIP structure.

Content: Signature Games vs Massive Variety

Stake built a unique identity through its Originals collection. Games like Crash, Plinko, and Mines are instantly associated with the brand and offer a gameplay experience that third-party content does not replicate. That identity has value, and the Originals remain a genuine draw for many crypto gamblers.

ZunaBet does not offer proprietary games. Instead, it offers 11,294 titles from 63 providers — a library that dwarfs what Stake makes available from external studios. The trade-off is clear: Stake gives you unique games you cannot find elsewhere, while ZunaBet gives you a volume of content that no single competitor matches.

For players who specifically seek out Stake Originals, that content remains exclusive to Stake. For everyone else — players who value variety, discovery, and access to the widest possible range of slots, live dealer games, and table games — ZunaBet’s library provides an experience that keeps delivering fresh content for months on end.

Crypto Infrastructure: Level Playing Field

On the payments front, these platforms compete on essentially equal ground. Both are crypto-native. Both support multiple coins. Both process transactions without platform fees. Both deliver fast blockchain-based withdrawals. ZunaBet edges ahead slightly on coin variety with over 20 supported cryptocurrencies including several that Stake does not natively support, but the core transaction experience is comparable.

This parity is precisely what makes the rest of the comparison so telling. When the payment infrastructure is equal, the value difference comes down to bonuses, games, and loyalty — and on all three, ZunaBet offers more to the average player.

Which Crypto Casino Earns Your Deposit

Stake built the template for crypto gambling and earned its position through years of brand building, innovative original games, and a sportsbook that competes with the best. For high-volume players who can access the upper VIP tiers, Stake still delivers personalised value that is hard to replicate. The Originals collection provides a unique flavour that no competitor has duplicated.

ZunaBet took that template and addressed its blind spots. A $5,000 welcome bonus where Stake offers nothing. Transparent rakeback up to 20% where Stake gates its best rewards behind opaque invitation thresholds. Over 11,000 games from 63 providers where Stake offers a smaller external library supplemented by proprietary titles. The same crypto payment speed with broader coin support.

For the whale-level player, Stake’s personalised VIP treatment may still hold appeal. For everyone else — and that includes the vast majority of crypto gamblers — ZunaBet delivers more welcome value, more accessible loyalty rewards, and more content to play through. In a crypto casino market that keeps growing in 2026, ZunaBet is the platform making the strongest case that the next generation of crypto gambling should be more generous, more transparent, and more packed with content than what came before.

Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.

Wall Street is racing toward tokenized equities and 24/7 trading, but many institutional investors are wary of the instant settlement model.

Tokenization refers to representing traditional assets such as stocks on blockchain networks. In theory, the approach could modernize market infrastructure that dates back decades, allowing securities to move and settle instantly while potentially enabling 24/7 trading.

That vision has gained momentum in recent months. Both ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq, have recently announced large partnerships with native crypto exchanges, aimed at bringing tokenized stocks to market.

But for many institutional traders, the shift raises practical concerns about liquidity, financing and how markets function day to day.

“Institutional investors generally do not like instant settlement,” said Reid Noch, vice president of U.S. equity market structure at TD Securities. While the technology could streamline the back end of markets, he said, forcing trades to settle immediately would create new frictions for professional investors.

The current U.S. system settles stock trades one business day after execution, known as T+1 settlement. That delay allows brokers and trading firms to net positions and manage funding throughout the day. Instant settlement, by contrast, would require transactions to be fully funded before they occur.

“No one really wants to be prefunded,” Noch said. If instant settlement became the standard across the market, trading firms would need to arrange financing throughout the day, potentially increasing costs and reducing liquidity at key moments.

The impact could be especially visible during periods of heavy activity, such as the market close when large volumes of trades are executed simultaneously. Balance sheet constraints could make those periods more expensive for investors, spreading liquidity more unevenly throughout the trading day.

Retail traders, however, may embrace tokenized markets more quickly. Many of the proposed benefits — such as holding shares directly in digital wallets or trading outside traditional market hours — are aimed at individual investors rather than large institutions.

Retail already accounts for roughly 20% of U.S. equity trading volume, though in certain stocks the share can rise to more than half of daily activity. In highly speculative “meme stocks,” retail participation has at times exceeded 90%.

Tokenized trading venues could particularly appeal to international retail investors seeking access to U.S. stocks when American markets are closed, Noch said. For those investors, opening accounts with crypto platforms may be easier than navigating the requirements of traditional brokers.

Over time, institutional investors may follow if liquidity shifts to tokenized venues. “If retail liquidity migrates there and becomes meaningful, institutions won’t really have a choice but to participate,” Noch said.

Still, the transition carries risks. One concern is market fragmentation if multiple versions of the same stock exist across different blockchains or tokenized platforms. That could weaken the transparency and price discovery that underpin the U.S. equity market.

“Generally, most companies only have one stock,” Noch said. “If suddenly there are multiple tokenized versions with different rights or liquidity profiles, that could create confusion about what investors actually own.”

Despite those concerns, industry momentum continues to build. Exchanges are already exploring longer trading hours, with some proposing nearly round-the-clock markets within the next few years.

Tokenization could ultimately become part of that shift — modernizing infrastructure behind the scenes while gradually reshaping how investors access stocks. But for now, the technology may advance faster among retail traders than the institutions that dominate today’s markets.

Key Takeaways

• Samsung (SSNLF) has partnered with Nvidia (NVDA) to create advanced ferroelectric NAND flash memory technology.
• A Physics-Informed Neural Operator (PINO) AI model was created in collaboration with Georgia Institute of Technology researchers.
• This AI-driven PINO model accelerates ferroelectric NAND performance analysis by more than 10,000 times versus conventional approaches.
• Traditional chip design software (TCAD) requires 60 hours for each simulation — this new AI technology completes the task in less than 10 seconds.
• Samsung previously revealed that ferroelectric NAND technology reduces power usage by 96% versus traditional NAND chips.

A groundbreaking collaboration between Samsung and Nvidia is pushing the boundaries of memory chip technology with potential implications for AI infrastructure.

The partnership brings together Samsung, Nvidia, and academic researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology to develop a specialized AI model known as a Physics-Informed Neural Operator (PINO). This innovation aims to accelerate the development timeline for ferroelectric NAND flash memory.

Unlike traditional silicon-based chips, ferroelectric NAND utilizes ferroelectric materials capable of retaining data without continuous power input. This characteristic positions the technology as a promising solution for creating more energy-efficient computing systems.

Samsung SDI Co., Ltd., 0L2T.L

Samsung has invested heavily in ferroelectric NAND research over recent years. The company published research in Nature journal demonstrating how this technology achieves a remarkable 96% decrease in power consumption when compared to conventional NAND memory.

That efficiency gain carries significant weight. As AI computing demands continue escalating energy requirements, a near-total reduction in memory-related power draw represents a substantial advancement.

However, development speed has remained a persistent challenge. Engineers rely on Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) software to simulate and optimize critical performance metrics like threshold voltage stability and long-term data retention.

Traditional TCAD processes demand approximately 60 hours to complete a single operation. This extended timeframe creates a significant barrier to rapid iteration and improvement.

The newly developed PINO model eliminates this constraint by completing identical analyses in fewer than 10 seconds.

Strategic Alignment Between Industry Giants

Nvidia represents Samsung’s most significant memory chip customer. Their established commercial ties create a logical foundation for expanded research and development cooperation.

Currently, SK Hynix dominates the supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to Nvidia. Samsung has actively pursued opportunities to expand its market share in this segment, making deeper collaboration on emerging memory technologies a strategic priority.

Micron Technology (MU) represents another major player in the HBM market, supplying memory components for AI accelerators.

The PINO research has been published and made accessible to the broader scientific community. Development is now transitioning toward commercial implementation, with Samsung anticipated to continue its Nvidia partnership through subsequent ferroelectric NAND development phases.

Financial Position Analysis

Samsung’s financial foundation appears robust. The company generated $234.73 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue while maintaining a 13.07% operating margin.

With a debt-to-equity ratio of merely 0.06 and a current ratio of 2.33, the balance sheet demonstrates strong capitalization and significant capacity for continued long-term research investment.

The stock trades at a P/E ratio of 28.43, positioning it toward the upper end of its historical valuation range. Technical indicators show RSI levels in overbought territory, a factor short-term traders may wish to monitor.

Institutional ownership remains minimal at 2%, with no documented insider transactions recorded during the previous twelve months.

Neither company provided official statements in response to media inquiries regarding the partnership.

TLDR

• Wedbush Securities boosted Micron’s price target from $320 to $500, highlighting memory pricing strength beyond initial forecasts
• Contract prices for DRAM and NAND memory are experiencing dramatic increases, with certain agreements showing gains exceeding 100%
• The company’s high-bandwidth memory production for 2026 has completely sold out, with demand now stretching into 2027
• Analysts anticipate earnings per share to jump more than 460% with revenues projected to double in the upcoming quarterly report
• Among S&P 500 technology stocks, Micron received the highest growth factor rating with an A+ grade, matching Broadcom’s score

Micron Technology (MU) is approaching its March 18 quarterly earnings announcement with significant momentum, fueled by upgraded analyst ratings, elevated price projections, and strengthening memory chip pricing dynamics.

Micron Technology, Inc., MU

Shares advanced 9.45% during the previous trading week, with an additional 1.4% uptick in Friday’s premarket session following Wedbush Securities’ decision to increase its price objective to $500 from $320. Analyst Matt Bryson maintained his Outperform recommendation, emphasizing that pricing trends have “moved well ahead of expectations.”

According to Bryson’s analysis, Micron’s own fiscal Q2 projections suggested approximately 30% growth in average selling prices. However, actual market conditions appear significantly more robust. Throughout January, DRAM and NAND contract negotiations indicated pricing gains exceeding 50% for the first calendar quarter of 2026. More recently, certain transactions have demonstrated percentage increases reaching triple digits.

Traditional market patterns show memory demand weakening following Chinese New Year celebrations, yet Bryson observed no such softening this cycle. “Rather if anything we’ve seen evidence of a continued lift in requirements and even tighter supply dynamics,” he wrote.

Bryson emphasized that with both earnings forecasts and price objectives trending upward, and Micron currently valued below historical peak earnings multiples, maintaining a bullish stance remains justified.

Wall Street’s Optimism Intensifies

Wedbush’s upgraded outlook represents just one voice in a growing chorus. Financial institutions including Citi, Susquehanna, and Aletheia have similarly elevated their price projections recently. Aletheia established the Street’s most aggressive target at $650, projecting that Micron could produce $150–$200 billion in cash flow spanning FY26 through FY27 while evolving into a dominant force among global semiconductor manufacturers.

The consensus expectations ahead of the earnings release reflect substantial optimism. Projected earnings per share growth exceeds 460% compared to the prior year period, while revenue estimates anticipate more than doubling. Multiple analysts forecast gross profit margins could achieve unprecedented levels.

While one prominent analyst has expressed valuation concerns following the stock’s substantial appreciation over the trailing twelve months, the overwhelming majority of Wall Street maintains a bullish perspective, reflected in the Strong Buy consensus rating.

High-Bandwidth Memory Demand Creates Multi-Year Visibility

The foundation of the optimistic investment thesis centers on high-bandwidth memory technology. HBM serves as a critical component within AI accelerator systems, and Micron’s production capacity for 2026 has already been completely reserved, with customer orders now extending throughout 2027.

This exceptional forward visibility substantially mitigates the cyclical volatility that has traditionally characterized memory semiconductor investments. Additionally, it suggests pricing leverage will persist considerably longer than historical industry cycles have demonstrated.

In a separate development, a recent growth factor assessment of S&P 500 technology constituents positioned Micron at the summit, awarding an A+ rating shared only with Broadcom (AVGO). AI-related companies including Palantir (PLTR) and AMD secured A ratings, while Nvidia (NVDA) received an A- grade. Conversely, Apple (AAPL) and Cisco (CSCO) both earned D- ratings at the lower end of the spectrum.

Micron is scheduled to release Q2 FY26 financial results on March 18.

Bybit is reportedly planning to enter the compliant US market via this potential partnership.

The popular Chinese crypto news channel Wu Blockchain reported earlier today that two of the industry’s giants, Coinbase and Bybit, are in talks for some sort of investment partnership.

Although the currently available information is quite limited and there’s no official response from either party, it’s reported that Bybit’s valuation could match OKX’s after the most recent funding event.

Exclusive: Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, is in talks with Bybit, the world’s second-largest offshore exchange, for an investment partnership. Bybit hopes to use this opportunity to enter the compliant US market. Three sources confirmed this news to… pic.twitter.com/SXBJnbDOQG

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 14, 2026

Citing three sources that confirmed the information, the report further indicated that such a collaboration would enable Bybit to enter the compliant US market.

It would follow several notable deals in the cryptocurrency space, such as Coinbase’s acquisition of the derivatives giant Deribit. As reported during the summer of 2025, the Wall Street-listed exchange purchased Deribit for $2.9 billion as the derivatives market was exploding.

More recently, OKX received a massive nod from the Intercontinental Exchange. The entity behind the New York Stock Exchange acquired a minority stake in the cryptocurrency exchange, putting its valuation at an impressive $25 billion following the latest investment round.

According to Wu Blockchain, Bybit’s valuation should be similar to OKX’s, meaning somewhere around $25 billion.

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CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko data show that all three trading platforms – Coinbase, OKX, and Bybit – are placed within the top five of their trust lists, with some of the highest scores in the industry.

Bitcoin has crossed a historic threshold: 20 million of its 21 million total supply has now been mined. The milestone leaves fewer than 1 million coins remaining to be extracted over the next 114 years, according to available data. The achievement underscores how close Bitcoin is to its absolute supply cap.

The extended timeline to extract the final 1 million BTC poses a critical challenge for miners. After the last halving around 2140, miners will depend entirely on transaction fees rather than block rewards to sustain operations—a fundamental shift that may force many current participants out of the industry before the network reaches completion.

Sources: Decrypt | Bitcoin Magazine | Yahoo Finance

This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.

Moreover, the overall negative streak stretches out to March 5.

The demand for the spot XRP ETFs in the United States has seemingly evaporated as the funds have not seen a single day of net inflows for over one whole week.

Nevertheless, the underlying token managed to post some gains over the past week before it was halted at $1.45.

XRP ETFs See Investor Exodus

The exchange-traded funds tracking the performance of the cross-border token enjoyed their initial honeymoon period that lasted roughly a month, in which they attracted over $1 billion in cumulative net flows. However, they began to slowly disappear from investors’ radar. The first two warning signs were observed on January 7 and 20 when $40.80 million and $53.32 million were pulled out of the funds.

January ended with another mass withdrawal of $92.92 million on January 29, and the overall month was just slightly in the green – $15.59 million; a figure significantly lower than the $666.61 million seen in November and $500 million in December.

February picked up the pace, as the total monthly inflows stood at $58.09 million. However, more warning shots were seen as there were days with zero net inflows. Such trading days returned in the previous week – SoSoValue shows $0.00 reportable inflow data for March 11 and March 13. Moreover, the other three trading days were in the red, with $18.11 million leaving the funds on Monday, $3.88 million on Tuesday, and $6.08 million on Thursday.

This negative streak extends to the previous business week. In fact, the funds have not seen a green day since March 4.

XRP Price Ascent Halted

Despite the investor exodus, XRP’s price fared rather well in the past week, jumping from a Monday low of $1.34 to a multi-week peak of just over $1.45. However, it was stopped there and now struggles below $1.40.

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Its most recent price moves have been contained in a relatively tight trading range, which has prompted many analysts to suggest that there’s a big move in the making. Ali Martinez, for example, noted a few days ago that XRP’s Bollinger Bands have been squeezing, hinting at a major breakout soon.

He doubled down earlier today, saying that XRP’s current triangular consolidation is approaching its tipping point, with a 30% price move brewing.

$XRP is consolidating in a triangle, hinting at a 30% price move. pic.twitter.com/lgjOWKUBHU

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) March 14, 2026

Sky, the successor to MakerDAO, is off to a strong start this month, with its total value locked (TVL) climbing to $7.52 billion, a 38% increase since March 1, according to DefiLlama.

This makes Sky the fourth-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol by TVL, trailing Aave, Lido, and EigenCloud. The sUSDS savings pool alone accounts for approximately $6.5 billion in deposits and has attracted nearly $1.3 billion since the start of the month.

As DeFi yields have dried up in the wake of the market downturn, Sky’s fixed 3.75% savings rate is higher than stablecoin supply rates on major protocols like Aave and Morpho. For example, supplying USDT or USDC on Aave’s Ethereum markets currently yields less than 2%.

“Yield is definitely the main factor, but it’s also one of the lowest risk, liquid yield sources in DeFi,” Sam MacPherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs, told The Defiant.

Sky founder Rune Christensen also emphasized that users are prioritizing safety amid the market turbulence.

“Honestly, it’s the classic story of how Sky, just like Maker used to, always does better in bear markets because it’s just focused on a solid product that can be trusted to be stable and deliver good returns,” Christensen told The Defiant.

The SKY token has rallied alongside the surge in TVL. The token is up approximately 4% over the past seven days and 12% over the past month, according to CoinGecko.

The token remains about 26% below its all-time high, per CoinGecko, with a market capitalization of roughly $1.7 billion.

Brazil’s leading cryptocurrency and fintech industry groups have warned that expanding a financial transaction tax to stablecoin operations could harm innovation and violate existing law.

In a joint statement shared with CoinDesk, industry associations ABcripto, ABFintechs, Abracam, ABToken and Zetta said recent discussions about extending a tax on financial operations (locally known as Imposto sobre Operações Financeiras, or IOF) to stablecoin transactions raise legal and economic concerns.

The organizations represent more than 850 companies across Brazil’s financial technology, virtual asset and market infrastructure sectors, the statement reads.

The debate centers on a levy applied to certain financial transactions, including foreign exchange operations. According to the associations, applying the tax to stablecoin transactions would conflict with Brazil’s current legal framework and harm the country’s crypto industry.

They argue that the Constitution defines the IOF as applying only to the settlement of currency exchange transactions involving the delivery of national or foreign fiat currency. Stablecoins, they said, do not meet that definition.

Brazil’s Virtual Assets Law, enacted as Law No. 14,478 in 2022, explicitly states that virtual assets are not considered national or foreign fiat currency, the statement says. The industry groups say this distinction means stablecoins cannot legally be treated as instruments representing foreign currency under the IOF rules.

As a result, the organizations say any attempt to extend the tax through a decree or an administrative rule would be unlawful. Under Brazil’s constitutional framework, new taxes or expanded tax triggers must be approved through the legislative process.

“In this context, any expansion of tax incidence on operations with stablecoins through a decree or administrative rule is illegal, since acts of this nature cannot create or expand a tax triggering event,” the document reads.

The groups also cautioned against conflating monitoring rules from Brazil’s central bank with taxation policy. They said oversight of digital asset transactions does not automatically justify applying the IOF tax to those activities.

Industry representatives argue that policy missteps could damage a rapidly expanding sector. Brazil has emerged as one of the world’s largest crypto markets, with an estimated 25 million people participating in the ecosystem.

Brazil’s stablecoin adoption

The associations said the country’s crypto sector has grown alongside a broader wave of financial innovation, including fintech platforms, digital payments, and blockchain infrastructure. They also noted that similar taxes on stablecoin transactions are not widely used in other major economies.

Stablecoin usage in Brazil has surged dramatically in recent years, turning the country into one of the largest markets for the assets in Latin America and globally.

Dollar-pegged tokens like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC now dominate crypto activity as Brazilians use them to hedge volatility in their fiat currency, the real (BRL), move money across borders at lower cost, and provide liquidity for trading.

Brazil’s crypto market, according to an auditor at Brazil’s tax authority, Receita Federal, is moving between $6 and $8 billion per month, with 90% of that being stablecoin flows.

Not all of them are U.S. dollar stablecoins, as BRL-pegged stablecoins are gaining traction. Trading in tokens linked to the Brazilian real reached about $906 million in the first half of 2025, according to Dune data.