World Map: Brazil — Digital Asset Trading in the land of Football and Carnival

Brazilians never miss a tech trend. They might not always be out in front but when they follow, they follow for real and stick with it. Within South America, look for Brazil to be the cryptocurrency market leader both on the development side and on the regulatory side. Nowadays, more people are opening crypto trading accounts in Brazil than traditional brokerage accounts.

Brazil has hopped on the cryptocurrency and blockchain bandwagon. It’s not getting off until all four wheels fall off.

Brazilian Banks vs Exchanges

In Brazil, the fight between banks and exchanges continues with gains and losses on both sides. In early August, a large Brazilian bank closed another exchange account. This has caused a bit of insecurity for cryptocurrency enthusiasts in the country.

The purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies are not regulated in Brazil, even though the tax authorities recognize crypto as a good and subject them to income tax (rates vary between 15% and 22%, depending on the gain).

In general, cryptocurrency regulation in Brazil is blocked. Experts split in opinions on the nature of digital coins. For many financial experts in the country, cryptocurrencies are still considered only a financial asset, not a real currency.

Healthy Interest from Government

Government is still reluctant to cryptocurrencies, however, there are signs that the approach might change in near future. In late August, the Brazilian government has reportedly sent the country’s top exchanges an inquiry in an attempt to learn more about their businesses and study their potential use in money laundering. The document (a 14-point questionnaire) is reportedly being sent under the Ministry of Finance’s name.

The 14 questions revolve around the exchanges’ operations. Some of them address how they check customers data, the trading limits they offer clients, how they control operations, how they identify users and more.

Other examples of interest include the fact that Brazilian presidential candidate used blockchain to publish his plan and Governmental plans to process petitions and write laws on Ethereum.

More and More Crypto Traders

In 2017, an exchange called Foxbit had around 100,000 registered customers. By the summer of 2018, it exchanged roughly 2,000 Bitcoin to and from Reals (Brazilain currency) every day and has a 36% market share. They also have more than 400,000 registered users out of the estimated 1.4 million that have accounts with them and their main competitors. If you compare these numbers to the roughly 600,000 citizens who have stock brokerage accounts than it’s easy to understand: Brazilians are into cryptocurrency. In 2016, Brazilians moved $160 million in and out of Bitcoin only. Last year, it hit $2.4 billion.

Summary

Brazilians are very excited about the whole cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, Bitcoin is often used in transactions. More and more people invest in altcoins as well.

Politicians, Banks, and Media personalities discuss the matter and show a massive interest in this field. Even Brazilian football star Ronaldinho launched his own cryptocurrency recently.

Crypterium has a lot of support from Brazil. We would love to hear more from our Brazilian followers in our Telegram chat.