Ripio, Sebastián Serrano and local-currency stablecoins

On November 9, 2026, Sebastián Serrano, CEO and co-founder of Ripio, sat down with David Hoffman on the Bankless podcast. Halfway through a conversation about the future of stablecoins in Latin America, he mentioned Picnic. This post is our thank-you, and a good excuse to explain why what he said matters to anyone using crypto in Brazil.

The episode is called Tokenizing Latin America: Six Currencies, One Financial System, and it went up on YouTube as "Why Stablecoins Need to Move Beyond the Dollar". It is worth the full hour.

Who is Ripio?

Ripio is one of the largest crypto companies in Latin America. In the episode, Serrano says the company started in 2013 as the first bitcoin wallet in Argentina and now operates in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.

Besides its consumer app, Ripio provides infrastructure to banks, fintechs and wallets, and it issues stablecoins in local currencies: wARS (Argentine peso), wBRL (Brazilian real), wCOP, wMXN, wCLP and wPEN. According to Ripio, each one is pegged one to one to its currency, with reserves verified by third-party attestations.

The Picnic mention

Around the 32-minute mark, Serrano explains how Ripio brings its local stablecoins to other companies. While listing the wallets that use Ripio's on- and off-ramps, he names a Brazilian one:

"[...] popular in Brazil called Picnic that is starting to use us."

That is exactly where we are. Picnic already recognizes wBRL in the app's asset catalog and is testing a second Pix route with Ripio, still limited to a test group. Today, Pix at Picnic runs through Avenia.

Three ideas from the episode that speak to Picnic

1. The next wave is local-currency stablecoins

Almost everyone issuing stablecoins today issues dollars. Serrano argues for the opposite path:

"almost everybody is going after dollar-denominated stablecoins. And we're not issuing a dollar-denominated stablecoin, we're issuing local stablecoins."

The argument is practical. People buy digital dollars to protect their savings, but they pay bills, salaries and rent in local currency. For everyday life, a digital real is as necessary as a digital dollar. If you are still choosing your digital dollar, we compare the options in USDT or USDC (in Portuguese).

2. Self-custody wallets lose people at the first deposit

This was the part that struck us most. Serrano describes what happens when someone tries to put money into a self-custody wallet: a long sign-up, a crypto purchase right away and, in the end, less money than went in.

"So your first experience using crypto is losing money."

His fix is to treat the first step as a deposit in local currency, not as a crypto purchase:

"we need to make the onboarding one-to-one."

In other words: someone who sends a thousand reais by Pix should see a thousand reais in the wallet, not a smaller amount in another currency.

That is the same logic Picnic follows with Pix. The deposit arrives as digital reais in your own account, and the decision to convert to digital dollars comes later, when and if you want it. We explain why keeping control of your assets matters in what is self-custody.

3. In emerging markets, DeFi is upside down

"If you look DeFi, it's all backwards."

On the best-known lending protocols, you deposit bitcoin or ether as collateral and borrow dollars. Serrano points out that, in emerging markets, many people keep their savings in dollars. It would make more sense to use digital dollars as collateral and borrow in local currency. That requires the local currency to exist onchain, and that is where stablecoins like wBRL come in.

Thank you, Sebastián and Ripio

Being mentioned on Bankless, in an episode about Latin America's financial infrastructure, by the founder of a company that has been in crypto for more than a decade, is no small thing for a team our size. Thank you, Sebastián, for the mention and for explaining so clearly a problem Picnic also works on every day. And thank you to the Ripio team for the partnership that is just getting started.

It is not the first time someone outside the company has told Picnic's story better than we do. For another one, look back at the Investidor 4.20 video (in Portuguese).

Picnic is a technology platform that lets users independently interact with USDC, a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle, on public blockchains. USDC is not legal tender in Brazil.

Displayed exchange rates vary with market conditions. The final applicable amount is the one shown on the transaction confirmation screen. Cryptoassets involve risks, including volatility and loss of peg.

Picnic does not custody user assets and is neither a financial institution nor a virtual asset service provider. Sending and receiving U.S. dollar payments through a U.S. account is offered in partnership with Noah Savings Inc. Terms and conditions apply.

Information verified in April 2026.