Brazil’s transition toward tokenized credit infrastructure, supported by the emergence of the duplicata escritural and increasingly stringent supervisory frameworks, is creating measurable cost efficiencies and reshaping intermediation models. Evidence from Project Aurora - Brazil’s Asset Tokenization Opportunity 2025, a study co-authored by Credit Saison Brazil, Pinheiro Neto Advogados, AmFi, Coruja, and Onigiri Capital, with sponsorship from Núclea, indicates that automated, on-chain credit structures can reduce operational expenses by up to 38 percent, mainly through elimination of manual reconciliations, consolidation of registries, and continuous auditability. For institutional DeFi, Brazil provides a case study in how regulated asset tokenization can align with capital-market funding, supervisory integration, and lifecycle automation.
Context and Structural Drivers
The evolution of Brazil’s credit market has long been constrained by fragmented documentation, bilateral data silos, and reliance on intermediated bank balance sheets. Since 2023, regulatory initiatives under the Banco Central’s Agenda BC# and CVM adjustments to distribution and crowdfunding structures have initiated a shift toward standardized, digital, legally enforceable receivables.
By 2026, three parallel developments underpin the transition: expansion of tokenized private credit as a funding channel; homologation and progressive rollout of the duplicata escritural as a unified digital receivable; and an environment in which fintechs face heightened governance and capital requirements. These elements collectively create conditions for interoperable registries, predictable supervision, and on-chain operationalization of credit workflows.
Market Impact Assessment
Tokenized private credit markets have advanced from pilots to regulated deployments, with platforms offering structured credit backed by real-economy receivables. Automation materially reduces frictions in sourcing, managing, and distributing SME credit—an area historically underserved due to high unit processing costs and document heterogeneity.
The table below summarizes the key data points provided in the validated evidence:
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Estimated operational cost reduction from tokenization | Up to 38% |
| Status of duplicata escritural | Testing and phased implementation in 2026 |
| Primary use case maturity | Tokenized private credit with real-economy backing |
| Regulatory environment | Increasing capital, governance, and operational requirements for fintechs |
Capital-market participation in credit funding is also increasing, though effects remain predominantly institutional as infrastructure, standards, and supervisory models mature. The transition from bank-centric credit to market-distributed architectures is gradual but structurally significant, positioning tokenized structures as operational rails rather than speculative assets.
Regulatory and Compliance View
Supervisors in Brazil are establishing tokenization as a compliance-dependent infrastructure rather than a parallel market. Three areas are particularly relevant for institutional DeFi participants:
• Governance and capital adequacy: Elevated requirements for fintechs and credit platforms reduce fragility and filter out firms lacking operational depth.
• Record-keeping, data integrity, and auditability: The duplicata escritural introduces a single source of truth for receivables, satisfying expectations for verifiable, immutable records.
• AML, KYC, and transactional surveillance: On-chain automation does not diminish compliance obligations; instead, it allows real-time visibility over asset flows, beneficial for risk-based monitoring.
Stablecoins, used as complementary settlement layers, must remain within regulatory perimeters focused on full backing, redemption processes, and liquidity management. As adoption increases in cross-border payments and tokenized financial operations, supervisors are likely to prioritize transparency in reserve composition and issuer governance.
Product and Structuring Implications
Tokenized credit products in Brazil increasingly follow structures aligned with regulated capital-market instruments, such as receivables-backed notes or fund units (FIDCs). Product design now emphasizes:
• Compatibility with the duplicata escritural for standardized receivable verification.
• Automation of waterfall payments, covenants, and event triggers using programmable workflows.
• Integrated distribution to institutional and qualified retail channels within CVM frameworks.
• Liquidity management via controlled marketplaces rather than unregulated secondary venues.
Collateral valuation improves as digital documentation reduces ambiguity of ownership, encumbrances, and historical payment data. However, investor suitability remains a binding constraint; the cost efficiencies identified in the Aurora study do not automatically translate into risk-adjusted appeal without robust servicing, data transparency, and regulatory compliance.
Risk Analysis
Market and liquidity risk: Tokenized receivables remain exposed to real-economy performance and sectoral concentration. Liquidity benefits from standardized digital documentation but remains constrained relative to public fixed-income markets.
Counterparty and credit risk: Although on-chain automation improves monitoring, underlying obligor creditworthiness remains central. The duplicata escritural mitigates documentation fraud risk but does not eliminate payment uncertainty.
Operational and cyber risk: Platforms must manage risks associated with smart-contract execution, key management, and integration with legacy registries. Supervisory emphasis on governance reflects concern about operational resilience.
Legal and regulatory risk: As implementation of the duplicata escritural progresses, transitional periods introduce interpretative complexity. Differences in data formatting, interoperability, and reconciliation between legacy and digital records may create temporary exposure to operational errors.
Operational Execution Notes
Institutions exploring participation in tokenized credit workflows in Brazil face several practical requirements:
• Integration with registries and custodians aligned to the duplicata escritural standards.
• Establishment of automated reporting pipelines to support supervisory expectations for auditability and data integrity.
• Harmonization of off-chain credit analysis with on-chain lifecycle automation to ensure consistency across origination, servicing, and enforcement.
• Controls for stablecoin usage in settlement, including liquidity buffers, monitoring of redemption mechanisms, and assessment of counterparty risk of issuers.
Where sections overlap (e.g., technology-stack details), deeper technical elaboration is omitted due to lack of specific data in the source.
Near-Term Outlook
Brazil’s tokenized credit market is progressing toward a regulated, infrastructure-centric phase in which automation materially reduces operational burdens and enhances transparency. Cost reductions of up to 38 percent, while contingent on full adoption of standardized digital receivables, indicate that efficiency gains are not theoretical. As market volumes expand and supervisory models stabilize, the Brazilian case may serve as a reference for jurisdictions seeking to integrate real-world asset tokenization into existing financial-market infrastructures without compromising systemic safeguards.
