Brazilian companies turn to stablecoins during the election period to avoid currency collapse

According to CoinDesk, Brazilian companies turned to stablecoins during the elections last Sunday (October 25) to avoid the risk of local currency depreciation. The cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin stated that corporate accounts contributed 78% of the trading volume that day. On election day, the trading volume of USDT surged nearly 800% compared to the same day the previous week, more than three times the average of the previous four Sundays; Bitcoin trading volume increased by 865% compared to the previous Sunday.

Data from Biscoint shows that the trading volume of USDT against the Brazilian real increased by 150% compared to the previous Sunday, while USDC increased by 318%. Pedro Fontes, a research analyst at Mercado Bitcoin, stated that in the face of increasing exchange rate pressure, stablecoins like USDT and USDC provide a simple way to dollarize some assets. Concerns for businesses became reality on Monday: Brazil's benchmark Ibovespa index plummeted by 14%, marking the worst performance since March 2020; the dollar rose over 8% against the real, the largest single-day increase since 1999. On Monday, the combined trading volume of USDT and USDC reached 1.84 billion reais (approximately 350 million USD), up 65% from the previous week.