The event’s first day brought women into key conversations on stablecoins, AI, adoption, regulation and financial infrastructure.

Day one of Blockchain.RIO 2026 skipped the usual crypto sloganeering and went straight for the harder questions. What regulation actually looks like in practice, whether stablecoins can pass muster with institutional finance teams, where AI fits into banking, and how Brazil's crypto market keeps expanding? 

All these questions were tried to be answered by women at Blockchain.RIO. They brought different perspectives from accounting, policy, payments, risk, technology and community-building. Let’s deep dive into their insights in the article.

From Stablecoin Promises to Company Accounts

In the panel called Stablecoins: Para que Servem de Verdade?, Erika Li of TokenNation, Thaís Almeida of Contiliza Contabilidade and Victoria Galasso of Liberaction moved the discussion towards the questions companies actually face.

How should stablecoins appear in corporate books? What are the legal and tax implications? And how can a business use them without taking on unnecessary risk?

Those questions felt timely. A KPMG and ABCripto survey published on the morning of the event found that 60% of the companies consulted viewed the Brazilian Central Bank’s stablecoin regulation positively. For businesses, clearer rules can turn an interesting technology into something they can confidently consider using.

AI, Fraud and the Future of Banking

Inteligência Artificial e o Futuro das Instituições Financeiras brought together Eduarda Davidovic (Febraban), Nathaly Diniz (Lumx) and Georgia Sanches (Sumsub) to sit with a tension banks now have to hold simultaneously: AI as an engine of innovation, and AI as a security problem.

Sanches put a human face on that tension in an interview at the event. Fraud rates in Brazil may be declining overall, she said, but the attacks that do get through are getting sharper — deepfakes, synthetic identities, account takeovers. A single document check at onboarding just doesn't cut it anymore. Her point: verification can't be a one-time gate; it has to run for the life of the customer relationship.

There Is No Single Route Into Crypto

Julia Rosin of ABCripto and Coinbase and Marina Fagali of Juntos por Cripto approached adoption from the user’s point of view during RAIO X da Criptoeconomia no Brasil.

Rosin spoke about younger users and the importance of thinking beyond the market’s next cycle. Fagali recalled that fan tokens were her own introduction to crypto. Gaming, communities, stablecoins and investment products can all serve as starting points.

Rosin also used the opening session to connect adoption with public policy. She described 2026 as a decisive year and discussed the partnership between ABCripto and Juntos por Cripto, which is working to bring digital assets into conversations with Brazil’s Congress.

Building Connections and Infrastructure

Danielle Teixeira of Fenasbac, Sabrina Olivo of ZKsync LATAM and Isabel Sica Longhi of Ripple led Experiência nacional, pontes internacionais, connecting Brazilian experience with public policy and international blockchain development.

On the Main Stage, Visa’s Antônia Souza joined Building the Next Generation of Financial Infrastructure, bringing a Latin American payments perspective to the discussion around tokenisation and digital markets.

The day also produced action beyond the panels. Regina Pedroso, executive director of ABToken, launched a cryptoasset self-regulation programme that includes regulator training and planned classes for the Federal Police.

Taken together, these moments captured the tone of Blockchain.RIO’s opening day. Practical, collaborative, forward-looking — that was the tone of day one. 

And women were driving it.