Argentine cryptocurrency platform Lemon has decided to shut down its Brazilian operations and close roughly 15,000 local accounts after concluding that the capital requirements under Brazil’s new virtual-asset service provider licensing framework, known locally as PSAV, are too costly relative to the size of its local business.
The company said new deposits in Brazilian reais have already been suspended. Lemon Card, a Visa payment card introduced only weeks earlier through payments infrastructure provider Pomelo, will stop processing transactions on September 30. Remaining accounts will be closed on October 16, 2026, and Lemon said it will contact affected users individually to assist with withdrawals before that deadline.
Brazil’s PSAV rules took effect on February 2, 2026, and providers face an October 30 deadline for the first stage of the licensing process. Capital requirements vary by activity, ranging from 10.8 million to 37.2 million Brazilian reais, with additional technology, compliance and reporting expenses. Lemon called the requirements “disproportionate” to its local customer base and revenue, and said it chose to redirect capital to Argentina, Peru and Colombia instead of financing a Brazilian licence.
Lemon’s exit is part of a wider split among crypto companies in Brazil. Coinext has reportedly shut down after failing to meet the minimum capital threshold, while Digitra ended retail trading. Crypto.com is keeping its Brazilian entity but plans to close Brazilian real-denominated accounts on October 25. In contrast, Binance has obtained regulatory approval, Ripple is pursuing a local virtual-asset service provider licence as it expands its RLUSD stablecoin across Latin America, and Coinbase has expanded access to USDC lending products in Brazil through Morpho.
The company said it will prioritize Latin American markets where it already has licences and stronger user numbers. Lemon reported more than one million users in Peru and over 150,000 users in Colombia. In Argentina, Lemon said Bitcoin purchases recently reached a 20-month high, though it did not disclose volumes. Brazil remains an active crypto market, with lawmakers considering a proposal for a national Bitcoin reserve that could eventually hold up to 1 million BTC, though that proposal remains separate from the central bank’s licensing system.
