Circle USDC settlement pilot in Colombia: Circle and ACI Worldwide plug stablecoin into Bre-B rails

27 Oct 2026

27 Oct 2026, 18:53 UTC+01:00

Exchanges TradeReviewed News Desk

Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, is teaming up with payments-technology company ACI Worldwide to test USDC settlement inside Latin America’s existing banking rails, starting with a pilot in Colombia, Decrypt reported on Tuesday.

What Circle and ACI announced

The collaboration pairs Circle’s USDC infrastructure with ACI Connetic, ACI’s cloud-based payments orchestration platform. The stated goal is to show banks and other financial institutions how stablecoin settlement can run alongside traditional payment systems instead of replacing them.

Colombia is the first market because ACI built the central infrastructure behind Bre-B, the country’s interoperable instant-payments network. The pilot will test how a digital dollar such as USDC can plug into that real-time, account-to-account system, creating what the companies describe as a multi-rail payments setup.

• Partners: Circle (USDC) and ACI Worldwide (ACI Connetic).
• First market: Colombia, on top of the Bre-B instant-payments network.
• Design: technology-agnostic, so ACI’s platform can support other payment networks and digital-asset providers over time.

Why banks care

The announcement reflects a change in how banks talk about stablecoins. The debate is less about the technology and more about how digital dollars fit into treasury operations, governance and settlement processes that institutions already run. ACI’s global head of account-to-account payments, Craig Ramsey, said the conversation is “moving from possibility to practicality.”

Circle’s chief commercial officer, Kash Razzaghi, said financial institutions across Latin America are increasingly exploring how stablecoins can support payments “within the infrastructure they already use.”

The pilot builds on Circle’s push into emerging markets. USDC already gained a regional foothold when Argentina’s Mercado Pago added the stablecoin. Colombia, with large cross-border remittance flows and a population used to holding dollars as an inflation hedge, is a natural next step.

What it means for traders

• Stablecoin adoption: bank-grade settlement pilots are a slow-burn driver of USDC supply and liquidity rather than a short-term price event. No volumes or launch date for live settlement were disclosed.
• USDC vs USDT: deals that wire USDC into regulated payment rails strengthen Circle’s position in the stablecoin race, especially in regions where dollar demand is high.
• Where you hold stablecoins matters: fees, withdrawal networks and USDC pairs differ by exchange. Check our crypto exchange comparison and how we test. In our tests BingX ranks first and OKX second; see BingX vs OKX. Always check availability in your country.

This is a pilot, not a live rollout, and the article will be updated if Circle or ACI share results. Not financial advice.

Related reviews

• Bingx review
• Okx review

Sources

• Decrypt: Circle Pushes Deeper Into Latin America With USDC Settlement in Colombia

News is for information only and is not financial advice. More crypto news