Market Roundup: Most Brazilian crypto firms remain unlicensed

Only 32 percent of crypto companies in Brazil are licensed

A new survey by the Brazilian Association of Cryptoeconomics (ABCripto) shows that 68 percent of companies in the sector don’t have any type of authorization from regulators such as the Central Bank and the Brazilian Securities Commission (CVM) to operate, while 32 percent do. This is mainly because the country is currently building its regulations, but not only that.

By the numbers. Just over half (55 percent) of the companies are “new,” created between 2020 and 2022, and virtually the same share (54 percent) identify themselves as micro or small businesses.

• The survey also shows that, although new, many of the startups and companies in the industry have tried from the start to build businesses within existing regulatory frameworks, bringing their technologies (blockchain, tokenization, etc.) to traditional industries such as banking, finance, insurance, and others.
• The diversity of activities is already enormous: 79% say they are active in intermediation (trading and distribution of assets), 62% in infrastructure (supporting interoperability between systems, such as settlement of transactions, custody of assets, etc.), and 30% in issuance (structuring of tokenization operations).

Data. ABCripto does not say how many companies it surveyed, nor whether they are all members. The organization has around 40 members.

Why it matters. For ABCripto CEO Bernardo Srur, the study clearly shows that the sector is in full development, which only makes the role of the Central Bank as its regulator more critical.  

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