Bleap, a Portuguese fintech founded by former Revolut employees João Alves and Guilherme Gomes, announced a new feature that allows Brazilians living in Europe to transfer money between Brazil and Europe cheaper and faster, using stablecoins instead of the traditional Swift network. The company obtained authorization under the MiCA regulation in Latvia in June, which allows it to provide services throughout the European Union.
The solution integrates PIX in Europe, allowing the client to send reais through Brazil's instant payment system and receive euros directly in their Bleap account in seconds, at the average market exchange rate, with 0% IOF and no transfer fee. Bleap guarantees that the entire stablecoin infrastructure remains invisible to the user, and claims that its transfers are cheaper than Wise, the main benchmark in the cheap international transfers market.
The company uses a model where it settles the international part of the operation with stablecoins, with a single local partner in each country converting the value to domestic currency and making the payment through national infrastructure. João Alves, CEO of Bleap, criticized Swift-based corridors, stating they were created for banks to move money to other banks, being a slow and expensive system for small amounts.
Bleap has already raised more than 8 million dollars in two funding rounds: a pre-seed of 2.3 million at the end of 2024, led by Ethereal Ventures, and a seed round of 6 million, led by Blossom Capital. The company currently has more than 70,000 users and intends to use the capital to open new corridors in the same model and continue building blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
