Colombian Bre-B Surpasses 600 Million Transactions

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Colombia’s instant payment revolution has reached a massive milestone as Bre-B concludes its first six months of operations. 

Developed by the Central Bank in partnership with ACI Worldwide, the system has already surpassed 600 million transactions and secured over 34 million registered users since becoming fully operational in October 2025. 

While often compared to Brazil’s Pix, Bre-B distinguishes itself by acting as a specialized intermediary between financial institutions rather than following a single unified model.

In other LatAm news, Argentine FinTech Depay recently raised over US$4M to accelerate its cross-border instant payments infrastructure. 

This fresh capital is earmarked for regional expansion and building critical bridges to instant payment systems in Asia, while also laying the groundwork for Depay's entry into the African and European markets.

Keep up with the latest in the payments world. 👇 Back tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

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🇨🇴 Bre-B, the "Colombian Pix," surpasses 600 million transactions in six months. The average value per transaction was 157,193 Colombian pesos, equivalent to R$200, and the accumulated financial volume was 100.3 trillion pesos, almost R$138 billion.

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🇪🇸 Unicaja confirms interest in WiZink. Unicaja is conducting preliminary analyses of WiZink to evaluate a potential investment, as part of its strategy to expand in the consumer finance segment. No decision has been made yet, with the process still in an early stage.

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GOLDEN NUGGET

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 $62𝐓 𝐢𝐧 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞... this number is impressive, and yet it doesn't tell the full story.👇 Created by Arthur Bedel 💳 ♻️

$62 Trillion. Let that sink in.

That's not a pilot.

That's not experimentation.

That's infrastructure forming in real time.

Now — context matters.

According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), after filtering out trading flows, internal exchange movements, bots, and protocol mechanics, 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐲 $350–$550𝐁 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬.

That's roughly 7% of total on-chain activity and that's the interesting part.

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

They're solving where traditional rails struggle:

→ Cross-border B2B settlement

→ Treasury repositioning outside banking hours

→ Remittances in volatile currency markets

→ Platform payouts across fragmented jurisdictions

Not your Starbucks or JOE & THE JUICE.

They're growing ~60% year over year — not because they're trendy, but because they remove friction in places where friction is expensive.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 Visa & Mastercard 𝐯𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧.

It's three models emerging:

1️⃣ Fully on-chain settlement

2️⃣ Stablecoins bridged into traditional rails (cards, PSPs)

3️⃣ Traditional fiat rails (cards, wires, acquirers)

We're entering a multi-rail world, not a winner-takes-all one. Another nuance payment leaders should understand:

Most on-chain activity is still financial infrastructure — trading, liquidity, positioning. 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 are real, but they're a minority and digital assets overall are projected to grow ~53% per year through 2033.

That's not hype.

That's a structural shift in financial infrastructure.

𝐒𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭:

"Will stablecoins replace cards?"

It's:

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥 — 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐨𝐧-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐧?

Curious:

If you run a global payment stack today — 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐧-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭?

Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

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