Drex and DePix: What Changes for Your Privacy
Both are worth R$ 1.00 and the similarity ends there. One is state-issued, permissioned and still on the drawing board. The other already circulates, with confidential amounts and the key in your hands.
Two “digital reais” are competing for the future of money in Brazil. One is Drex, the Central Bank's digital currency, built on a permissioned network where participating institutions validate transactions. The other is DePix, a private stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Real, circulating on the Liquid Network with confidential amounts and keys held by the user.
Drex does not exist as a product yet
What Drex Is
Drex is Brazil's CBDC, a central bank digital currency. In simple terms, it is the Real issued by the Central Bank in digital form, running on a permissioned network, meaning an infrastructure where only authorised participants operate nodes and validate transactions.
- State issuance, by the Central Bank
- Distribution through banks: citizens access it via a financial institution
- Closed network, with validation restricted to authorised participants
- Programmability: the architecture provides for contracts embedding rules into operations
- Linked identity: access goes through an institution, with the holder identified
Drex is not “crypto” in the usual sense of the word. It is the traditional financial system rebuilt on distributed ledger technology, with the guarantees and also the control characteristics that implies.
What Happened in the Pilot
The Central Bank shut down the platform used in the second phase of the pilot, built on Hyperledger Besu, and the third phase began with the choice of a new technological base.
The stated reason was precisely the difficulty of reconciling two requirements that pull in opposite directions: the transparency inherent to a distributed ledger and the need to preserve secrecy over each participant's data. The Central Bank states that banking secrecy will be maintained and that there will be no individual tracking of spending.
What DePix Is
DePix is a Brazilian stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Real, circulating on the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin sidechain operated by a federation of industry companies.
- 1 DePix is always worth R$ 1.00, with no volatility
- Self-custody: keys stay on your device, in wallets like Blockstream Green or SideSwap
- Confidential Transactions: the amount and asset type moved are hidden by default
- Open network: anyone transacts without asking permission
- Identified ramp: buying and selling in Real goes through document verification
If you are not familiar with the asset, the complete guide on what DePix is covers how it works in detail.
The Difference That Actually Matters
Setting technology aside for a moment, the central question is a single one: when you hold R$ 1,000, who decides what can be done with that money?
Drex and DePix side by side
| Aspect | Drex | DePix |
|---|---|---|
| Status | In development, not launched | Live |
| Issuer | Central Bank of Brazil | Private issuer, backed by the Real |
| Network | Permissioned, technical base being defined | Liquid Network, open |
| Custody | Planned through financial institutions | Yours, via your private key |
| Privacy in circulation | Model still being defined | Amount and asset confidential |
| Programmability | Provided for in the architecture | Does not apply to the user's balance |
| Access | Through an authorised institution | Any Liquid wallet |
| Reversal | Financial system rules | None, the transaction is final |
The Programmability Question
“Programmable money” sounds like modernisation, and in many cases it is: an instalment released automatically on delivery, collateral that executes itself, a transfer conditioned on proof. Legitimate, useful applications.
The same technical capability, however, permits uses of another nature: a balance with an expiry date, funds restricted to a spending category, a block conditioned on some outstanding matter. These scenarios appear in public discussions about CBDCs in several countries.
Trusting versus not needing to trust
With DePix, the balance is a blockchain entry controlled by a private key. There is no mechanism for a third party to program, expire or condition that balance, because there is no third party in the path.
How DePix Privacy Works
Confidential Transactions
On Liquid, amounts are encrypted by default. An outside observer can see that a transaction occurred and can verify that it is valid, but cannot see how much was transferred or which asset. It is worth comparing the three models:
- Bitcoin: pseudonymous addresses, but fully public and permanent amounts
- Banking system: identity and amounts known to the institution and to counterparties
- DePix on Liquid: amounts hidden, with no identity attached to transfers between wallets
Where the Privacy Starts and Where It Ends
The DePix model is identified at the edges and confidential in the middle:
- At the ramp, buying or selling Real, there is document verification and operations enter the records the law requires
- In circulation, between Liquid wallets, transfers are confidential as to amount and asset
It works much like physical cash: you identify yourself when withdrawing at the bank, and you do not then report every purchase made with those notes. That is not a loophole, it is a long-established model.
Is DePix Legal? And Will Drex Be Mandatory?
The Legal Status of DePix
Crypto assets have been legal in Brazil since Law 14,478/2022, which established the framework for virtual asset service providers. Secondary regulation arrived with Central Bank Resolutions 519, 520 and 521 of 2025, in force since 2 February 2026.
Firms already operating have until 30 October 2026 to file their authorisation request with the Central Bank, and may keep operating in the meantime as long as they do not expand their activity. Because that window is still open, no provider has completed the process, so be sceptical of any platform advertising itself today as “Central Bank authorised”.
On the tax side, the old IN 1888/2019 was revoked and replaced by IN RFB 2,291/2025, which created DeCripto following the OECD's CARF standard. Since 1 July 2026, anyone operating without an intermediary above R$ 35,000 a month has a monthly reporting obligation. The DePix filing guide details what that means in practice.
And Whether Drex Will Be Mandatory
There is no obligation, not least because there is no launched product. What can be observed in other countries is an adoption pattern: optional first, encouraged later. Whether that repeats here, nobody knows. What you can do is get to know the alternatives before you need them.
When Each One Makes Sense
PIX, and Drex in future, work well for
- Everyday payments where privacy is not a concern
- Formal receipts, with invoices and documented consideration
- Any interaction with public bodies
- Situations where you want the protection of a chargeback
DePix works well for
- Holding value outside the banking system without taking on volatility
- Paying third parties without exposing your data to whoever receives
- Receiving crypto from abroad and converting into a stable Real
- Reducing dependence on a single financial institution
- Keeping a reserve that does not depend on anyone's approval
How to Get Started with DePix
The process takes less than ten minutes of actual effort:
- Create the Liquid wallet on Blockstream Green, free, writing the 12 words on paper
- Verify your tax ID by sending R$ 1 via PIX to the Depix.Online key, once only
- Place the first order, capped at R$ 500, entering tax ID, wallet address and amount
- Pay the PIX QR code the platform generates
- Wait for the 24-hour release on the first order
- Continue in the normal flow, with limits of R$ 1,500 and then R$ 5,000
Purchase fees run from 10% + R$ 0.99 on smaller amounts to 1.5% + R$ 0.99 above R$ 3,500. To go back to Real, you sell DePix to any PIX key, up to R$ 6,000 per transaction, with no verification required, at fees between 3% and 5% depending on the amount.
Conclusion
Drex and DePix start from opposite premises. One concentrates infrastructure in authorised institutions and relies on public policy to define the limits of what will be visible and what will be programmable. The other distributes control and settles the question in the architecture itself, at the cost of handing you responsibility for the key.
You do not need to demonise Drex to make the case for DePix. It is enough to note that one of them is still being designed, with a genuine tension between transparency and secrecy that led the Central Bank itself to restart the pilot's technical base, while the other already works today with an answer to that question built in.
Both are worth R$ 1.00. What differs is how much trust in third parties each one demands from you. If you want to try the second model, start small on Depix.Online and read first about how the platform's security works and about the Liquid network.
This content is educational and informational and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Digital assets involve risk.
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