Episode
Episode #166: Thamilla Talarico on Drex and Polygon's Growth in Brazil
- Podcast
- Brazil Crypto Report
- Published
- Sep 16, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3435
- Processing state
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Summary
🙌 You can listen to BCR on your favorite podcast platform YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts 🔥 Join the BCR English language Telegram group to continue the conversation Olá pessoal! Today’s episode is with Thamilla Talarico, head of on-chain finance growth for Brazil at Polygon Labs. You may recall that she previously represented Ernst & Young in the Central Bank’s Drex pilot. We talk about Polygon’s deliberate investment in Brazilian market expansion , recognizing the country's unique position in the Latin American digital asset ecosystem. We also dive into several important changes to Polygon’s growth strategy. Gone are the days when Starbucks and Nike were issuing NFTs on the platform. Nowadays, they are laser focused on payments and on-chain finance (RWAs). Thamilla also reflects at length about her experience working on the Drex pilot with EY. We explore about the good, bad and ugly aspects of the project, and how, ultimately blockchain privacy technology is just not ready to be deployed at the scale required by the Central Bank. Key Takeaways Regarding Polygon’s Pivot * Laser-focused vision : Polygon has shifted from being a general-purpose blockchain to specifically targeting real-world assets and payments, moving away from the scattered approach that previously included NFT partnerships and various enterprise initiatives * Market dominance in BRL stablecoins : Brazilian Real stablecoins represent the second-largest non-USD stablecoin volume on Polygon, with major issuers including BRL1 (Bitso, Mercado Bitcoin, Foxbit consortium), BRLA (Avenia), and BRZ (Transfero) * Technical infrastructure improvements : The Giga gas roadmap promises significant performance enhancements, scaling from 1,000 TPS currently to 5,000 TPS by October 2024, with eventual targets of 10…