Buy bitcoin with Pix

What is Pix?

Pix is Brazil's instant payment scheme, created and operated by the Banco Central do Brasil, which settles every transfer through its own SPI infrastructure. It works from any Brazilian bank or payment account, addressed by a Pix key (phone number, email, tax number or random key) or a QR code instead of account details. Participation is mandatory for the larger institutions, so effectively every Brazilian account has it, and it is the standard way to fund a reais balance.

Speed

The Pix Regulation defines it as real time, with funds made available to the recipient immediately, and the service runs 24 hours a day every day of the year.

Cost

BCB Resolution 19 bans institutions from charging an individual to send a Pix or to receive one as a transfer, while legal entities can be charged and a Pix ordered at a branch or by telephone may carry a fee.

Limits

Participants may set Pix limits only on fraud and money laundering grounds, but the Banco Central imposes one default of its own: 1,000 reais on transfers between individuals between 20:00 and 06:00, which a bank has at least 24 hours to act on a request to raise.

Speed and cost describe the rail itself. What an exchange adds on top varies by platform and is shown per exchange below.

Using Pix in Brazil

Pix appears in one country guide on this site, Brazil, where deposits settle in Brazilian real (BRL). Buyers there fund exchange accounts with TED, Credit or debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay as well, and the country guide ranks the exchanges that take each one.

Buy bitcoin with Pix in Brazil