Back from Rio de Janeiro, where the Drofa Comms team attended the annual Blockchain.RIO 2026 event, we have gathered some insightful takeaways. Essentially, they are directly connected to where the crypto industry is heading towards 2030.
Our LATAM PR Lead, Graziella Cardeal, spoke with financial and crypto leaders from Brazil and across the region, giving us a first-hand view of the issues shaping the market. Several themes kept coming up, and among them are stablecoin development, new KYC realities in the AI era, tokenisation and crypto regulation.
Taken together, these discussions suggest that the Brazilian and broader LATAM crypto markets are moving towards stronger infrastructure, clearer market rules and more mature controls.
How Are Stablecoins and KYC Changing Crypto Adoption in Brazil?
Stablecoins in 2026 are moving into corporate finance. Earlier, companies asked what stablecoins were, how they could use them and what benefits they could offer businesses. Now, discussions are centred on accounting treatment, taxation and client-asset segregation.
Local regulators have already started to create clearer conditions around their use, and people mainly get along with it. A KPMG and ABCripto survey released during Blockchain.RIO found that 60% of respondents viewed the Brazilian Central Bank’s stablecoin regulation positively.
What we heard in Rio confirms that stablecoins are becoming a viable option for certain payments and settlement use cases. Since regulation becomes clearer and more companies gain real experience with them, their role in corporate finance is likely to expand.
At the same time, KYC is dramatically changing. Deepfakes, synthetic identities and account takeovers mean that a one-time onboarding check is no longer sufficient. With AI-powered fraud getting more sophisticated, KYC models primarily need to combine identity verification, transaction monitoring and behavioural analysis.
Therefore, for crypto companies, security can’t remain a checkbox in a compliance press release. A product earns trust when users and partners can understand how its security model works in practice.
How Is Brazil Shaping Crypto Regulation and Tokenisation?
In recent years, Brazil has started being more involved in defining how crypto should be regulated, supervised and developed. In 2026, this involvement is even more visible.
For instance, ABCripto shared with us that it has taken the stablecoin classification debate directly to Congress. ABToken, in turn, has launched a self-regulation programme that includes regulator education and planned training for the Federal Police.
Meanwhile, forget about a single route into crypto. Now users in Brazil may enter through stablecoins, gaming, fan tokens, investment products or online communities.
All of this means that Brazilian companies shouldn’t try to pick up and adopt global tendencies in their domestic market. Local regulation, stakeholder priorities and market context need to shape communications from the start. This is exactly the approach our LATAM PR team applies when supporting companies expanding into Brazil and the wider region.
What Do Blockchain.RIO 2026 Insights Mean for Crypto PR?
Blockchain.RIO 2026 insights show that the conversation has already moved beyond the “crypto is becoming institutional” narrative. On its own, that statement no longer tells the market anything new.
As the industry becomes more technical and regulated, journalists, partners and decision-makers want more specific answers. They need to know how a product works, where it fits within regulation, who uses it and what controls are in place.
For Drofa Comms, this is the value of being on the ground at events such as Blockchain.RIO. They help us understand how core topics change before they become generic industry narratives.
Brazil and the broader LATAM market offer an early indication of where the industry may be heading next. It’s moving towards a crypto market defined less by superficial claims about adoption and more by real usage.
