What Is Deframe and How It Converts Your Reais at Picnic

Deframe is the partner that converts Brazilian reais into digital dollars, and digital dollars back into reais, on some of the most used paths at Picnic. When a Pix payment comes in and needs to become digital dollars, or when digital dollars need to go out as a Pix payment, it is very likely that Deframe is handling that exchange behind the screen.

In this post, we explain who Deframe is, exactly where it fits in the app and what that changes for you.

What is Deframe?

Deframe is the infrastructure from Pods, a company that offers fintechs and apps a single integration for conversions, on- and off-ramps and investments. The idea, as Pods itself describes it, is that an app can connect foreign exchange, swaps and investment products through one integration, without having to build each piece from scratch.

For people who use Picnic, this means currency conversion is done by a company that specializes in this kind of operation, while Picnic takes care of the app experience and your account.

Where does Deframe fit in at Picnic?

Money at Picnic moves in digital versions of currencies: reais, dollars and euros, all held in your own account. To go from one currency to another, someone has to do the conversion. Deframe builds that bridge in three situations:

1. Pix that becomes digital dollars on the card. When a Pix deposit arrives for the card balance, Avenia receives the Pix and delivers digital reais. Then Deframe converts that amount into the card's currency, which lives on Gnosis Chain.
2. Card balance that goes back out as Pix. When you withdraw from the card to Pix, the path is reversed: Deframe converts the balance into digital reais, and Avenia pays out the Pix.
3. Conversion between reais and digital dollars inside the app. When you swap reais for digital dollars, or the other way around, Deframe is one of the companies competing for your quote. Picnic checks more than one provider and picks the best answer for that moment.

This third point matters. Deframe does not win every conversion automatically. It competes. If another company offers a better quote at that instant, the other one wins.

How much does converting cost?

No IOF (Brazil's tax on foreign-exchange transactions). Converting reais into digital dollars at Picnic does not pay the foreign-exchange IOF that applies to purchases made with a traditional international card.

The quote shown in the app already includes the conversion costs, and you see the estimated amount you will receive before you confirm. If you want to understand what makes up the dollar price in any conversion, we explain it in how the dollar exchange rate works (in Portuguese).

Why does this matter to you?

Converting currency looks simple, but behind every conversion there is a hard question: who is on the other side, with enough liquidity, to deliver the right amount, quickly and without surprises?

Having Deframe on that bridge brings three practical advantages:

• Simplicity. When you top up the card with Pix, the Pix becomes digital dollars without you having to do anything other than send the Pix.
• Transparency. You see the quote before you confirm the conversion.
• Competition. Because Deframe competes for the quote with other providers, you are not stuck with a single company's price.

If you are not yet sure what digital dollars are, the guide what are digital dollars (in Portuguese) is a good starting point. And for the step-by-step purchase, see how to buy digital dollars with Pix.

What stays with Deframe and what stays with you

Deframe executes the conversion. It does not hold your balance. The money leaves your account, goes through the conversion and comes back to your account already in the other currency. Before and after the swap, the assets are under your control, in your Picnic account.

Thank you, Deframe

A large share of the Pix payments that become digital dollars at Picnic go through Deframe. That takes a partner that responds quickly, handles volume and works alongside us when something needs adjusting, and that is what we found in the Pods team. Thank you for the partnership and for helping make simple an operation that, behind the scenes, has a lot of moving parts.

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.