MiniPay Unlocks Instant USD₮ Spending Across Latin America’s Biggest Payment Rails: Now Live on PIX and Mercado Pago

MiniPay, a leading stablecoin wallet built on Celo with more than 10 million activated wallets, today became the first to enable instant spending of USD₮ (Tether) across Latin America’s dominant real-time payment rails — PIX in Brazil and Mercado Pago in Argentina.

The rollout, powered by Noah, introduces MiniPay’s new “Pay like a local” feature, allowing any user—resident or traveler—to pay directly from their USD₮ balance to PIX or Mercado Pago, with merchants receiving funds in local currency in seconds. No local bank account. No residency. No cash-out step. No card failures.

“Once you’ve topped up your wallet, it’s important to be able to make real time payments with it,” said Murray Spark, Head of Commerce at MiniPay.  “We are turning a global digital dollar into a powerful, simple, and reliable tool for local spending. This is about unlocking true spending power and delivering the seamless payment experience in the region. Our new Pay feature bridges our users’ stablecoin balance with the everyday payment infrastructure that is central to commerce in Latin America.”

This marks the first time a stablecoin has become directly and instantly spendable across the dominant payment systems used for everyday commerce in Brazil and Argentina.  In Brazil, PIX is the dominant financial “operating system,” used by over 76% of the population and processing 80% more transactions than credit and debit cards combined. In Argentina, Mercado Pago is the ubiquitous digital wallet, with over 72 million active users and a 68% market share in the country’s payment ecosystem. By connecting to both, MiniPay is providing a bridge for travelers and digital dollar holders to pay like a local in economies where foreign cards often fail, and enabling instant utility for crypto users in these markets.

Users simply enter the amount they want to pay, see the equivalent in USD, and MiniPay handles conversion and instant disbursement in Argentine pesos or Brazilian real. By transacting over each country’s instant-payment rails and QR systems, MiniPay delivers the speed and predictability locals expect — now powered by a global digital dollar.

MiniPay is also expanding its on- and off-ramp network to support this roll-out. ElDorado enables fast P2P conversions to USD₮ with transparent pricing; AlfredPay strengthens compliant liquidity and cash-in/cash-out coverage across key regional corridors; and Paytrie, registered with FINTRAC in Canada, enables seamless transfers between Canada, the U.S., and Latin America. Together, these partners provide the redundancy and reliability needed to move value between stablecoins and local currencies at scale.