BRICS

BRICS is a group of economies that push for new ways to move money across borders. It became one of the most influential entities in crypto and blockchain talk through 2025 via its push for local-currency trade and new payment rails that focus on global movement, rather than one country’s financial system.

In 2025, BRICS stands out because it moved from vague “de-dollarization” efforts into more visible work on payment system interoperability and cross-border settlements. 

Origin and Background

BRICS began as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. It added more members and partners over time. For example, BRICS welcomed Indonesia as a member in 2025, and detailed a list of partner countries that can participate in group developments.

Key Highlights

• Tasked finance leaders to keep working on the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative.
• Pointed to a BRICS technical report meant to support “fast, low-cost” cross-border payments.
• Kept pushing “BRICS Pay” style ideas, but experts noted adoption challenges outside Russia.
• Sparked renewed debate about a gold-linked settlement “unit” for trade payments.
• Backed the New Development Bank’s push to expand local-currency financing for projects.
• Brazil’s BRICS presidency highlighted that the New Development Bank had already financed $32B in infrastructure and clean energy projects.

Impact on the Industry (2025)

In 2025, BRICS made blockchain payments into a sort of roadmap. It pushed meaningful work on payment links, settlement tools, and local-currency trade, which are areas where crypto, stablecoins, and CBDCs often compete.

Looking Ahead (2026 and Beyond)

In 2026 onward, BRICS should be looking into establishing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). India’s central bank has already discussed CBDC linking as a potential BRICS agenda item. Should this happen, it will mark yet another step toward the organization’s goal of unifying global payments.