Brazil’s new payment system Pix is causing concerns in Washington as it is competing with US credit card companies while modestly advancing the de-dollarization agenda. Pix is run by Brazil’s Central Bank (BCB) and was launched in 2020 in an effort to chip away at the US dollar. The payment system enables users to send and receive transfers in just a few seconds, at any time, including non-business days.

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The de-dollarization move from Brazil through the new payment system remained slow in 2020 but is gaining speed in 2025. According to the latest Pix data from Brazil’s Central Bank, Pix settled more than $450 billion worth of transactions last quarter. Pix “operates outside the dollar ecosystem. It represents the embryo of independent systems,” said Brazilian diplomat Philip Yang. The trade wars kick-started by Trump are making Brazil safeguard its economy.

Brazil’s De-Dollarization Move Through Pix Payment System Angers the US

Brazilians abroad no longer depend on the US dollar for conversion and remit their local currency, the real, back home through Pix. This saves them exchange rate costs while also reducing dependency on the US dollar. The usage of Pix among individual users in the country has boomed, with 76% of people paying through the system. Therefore, Brazil’s Pix is a new challenger to the US dollar and is advancing de-dollarization by cutting exchange rate costs.

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Yang wrote in a local news outlet that Pix is a mechanism “that threatens the slow and expensive monopoly of the SWIFT system.” The US opened a trade investigation to probe whether Brazil’s Central Bank unfairly favors Pix over other payment services, according to the statement by the United States Trade Representative, The rise of Pix is harming US credit card companies as it’s bypassing the US dollar in transactions. The US is looking to thwart de-dollarization and protect the dollar by not allowing Brazil’s new payment system to flourish.