“Cash or card?” For millions of Brazilians, the answer is neither.
Instead, the payment of choice in Latin America’s largest nation is often PIX, a fast and free digital system Brazilians use every day to shop, pay bills, settle bar tabs and buy snacks on the beach.
The payment method has become immensely popular, adopted by more than 80 percent of Brazil’s population. Outside the country, it has drawn praise from leading economists, who have gone as far as to call it the future of money.
Yet its success has also set off blowback: The Trump administration, as part of its aggressive economic and political campaign against Brazil, is investigating PIX, accusing the payment system of unfairly undercutting U.S. financial and technology companies like Visa and Apple.
The standoff over PIX has intensified the diplomatic crisis between Brazil and President Trump, who has also imposed steep tariffs and sanctions in an effort to prevent former President Jair Bolsonaro, his political ally, from being found guilty of plotting a coup.
U.S. criticism of the payment method has hit a nerve in Brazil, which has cast it as another attack on its sovereignty. “PIX belongs to Brazil and the Brazilian people!” the government declared in a social media campaign that has gone viral.
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