#165: New Report: A New Planet Called Pix – 5 Years
W FINTECHS NEWSLETTTER #165
👀 Portuguese Version 👉 here
👉 W Fintechs is a newsletter focused on financial innovation. Every Monday, at 8:21 a.m. (Brasília time), you will receive an in-depth analysis in your email.
👉 The English version will be available on January 10, 2026.
A new planet has been discovered. And it already moves three trillion reais every month.
For years, Brazil revolved around old orbits. TED, DOC, boletos, cards, each had its own gravity, its own limits, its own delays. But in November 2020, a light cut through space and opened a new orbit of possibilities. That light was Pix. And it wasn’t an isolated event. It was the sum of tensions, talent, and needs that had been building within the Brazilian financial system. It truly felt as if we were witnessing a planetary alignment.
Today, December 10, 2025, W Fintechs publishes a full study on the first five years of this new planet. The report is divided into three chapters. We begin by reconstructing the past: how payment methods evolved, how Brazil organized, regulated, and tested different ways of paying. Then we dive into the arrival of Pix, its behind-the-scenes story, its architecture, its first days of life. Finally, we explore the more recent layers: social impact, functional evolution, internationalization, and the new satellites now orbiting this ecosystem.
To tell this story, we brought in people who lived it up close. Leandro Piano, from Belvo, explains how payment initiation, one of Pix’s key features, is making payments increasingly invisible. Matheus Rauber, from the Central Bank, shares how the regulator is integrating Pix and Open Finance under an evolving innovation agenda. And Ana Carla Abrão, CEO of Open Finance Brasil, shows how Pix paved the way for a new model of interoperability between payments and data.
Today, Pix handles more than 6.9 billion transactions per month. The average ticket has surpassed 460 reais. There are 178 million active users, nine out of ten of whom are individuals. And even at this scale, Pix still has room to grow. In a single month, it already moves more than Argentina’s GDP.
We also show how the machinery works: instant settlement, SPI, DICT, RSFN.
And we break down all the major features launched over the past five years: Pix Withdrawal, Pix Change, MED 1.0 and 2.0, Pix Automatic, NFC, Pix Billing with due dates, and Pix as Collateral. We explain how fraud evolved, how the Central Bank responded, how MED 2.0 works, and what real dispute flows look like. We also map the insurance ecosystem that formed around Pix, as banks and fintechs began offering protection against theft, coercion, and unauthorized transactions.
Another highlight is credit. We show how Pix began to serve as a starting point for financing purchases, and how players like Nubank, Mercado Pago, and Pagaleve are testing different models: four interest-free installments, and 12- or 24-installment plans with rates of up to 9 percent a month.
The report spans 76 illustrated pages, with charts, timelines, visual flows, and a language accessible to both technical and non-technical readers, anyone seeking to deeply understand how Pix became such an integral part of Brazilian life, and why.
If you want to truly understand Pix, read the full report. May this new planet continue to expand, and may we learn how to explore it.
Enjoy your reading!
Special thanks to our sponsors: Belvo, Iniciador and Boyce Data.
Until the next!
Walter Pereira
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are solely the responsibility of the author, Walter Pereira, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors, partners, or clients of W Fintechs.