⚠ Deposits Are Rate-Sensitive & Flighty

The deposit base is what lets Stone fund credit cheaply, but deposits are less loyal and more rate-sensitive than the strategy assumes. Small-business balances held for working capital can be swept out to a rival offering a better yield, moved instantly via Pix, or drawn down when the economy tightens — as the sequential dip in deposits during a soft quarter showed. In a high-interest-rate country like Brazil, the temptation for merchants to chase yield elsewhere is real, and the cost of retaining deposits can rise, eroding the funding advantage.

Stone's answer is stickiness through integration: a merchant whose receivables, payments, and operations all flow through the account leaves the balance there because it is convenient, not because of the rate. That behavioural loyalty is genuine and has kept the base growing. But a deposit franchise is only a cheap funding source while the money actually stays, and in a country of high and volatile rates that is never guaranteed. A moderate risk to the cheap-funding engine on which credit depends — an engine currently holding R$10.1 billion¹.