Good morning! Today, crypto is set for stricter regulation in Brazil. Lula and the Workers’ Party moving to curry favor from Evangelicals. Remote indigenous groups still left without vaccines.
Congress moves to regulate crypto
The Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee passed a bill on Monday night regulating crypto markets in Brazil, amid pressure from the financial sector to crack down on mounting cases of fraud involving unregulated cryptocurrencies.
- The Senate fast-tracked the bill on a technicality — and markets expect both congressional houses to have approved it by April.
Why it matters. The bill turns crypto exchanges into financial institutions, meaning they can only operate with regulatory approval. Lawmakers hope to tame the use of crypto for scams — which defrauded Brazilian investors for a total of BRL 6.5 billion (nearly USD 1.3 billion) over the past two years alone.
The rules. Besides operating as legacy institutions, crypto exchanges would also be forced to report all suspicious activity to Coaf, Brazil’s money laundering enforcement agency. The bill creates a new crime of embezzlement by way of virtual assets, punishable with up to eight years in prison — plus a fine.
State of play. Data from the Federal Revenue Service shows that...