🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report #11: "Do Not Fool Yourself. We Can Track All Your Bitcoins and Cryptocurrencies"

Welcome to 🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report for the week of Sept 6 - 10, where we look at the key crypto happenings in Latin America’s largest economy.

This week we’ve got some spicy new job postings in the region from Binance and Bitso, news that the tremendously popular Flamengo football club is launching its own fan token, Gisele Bündchen promoting FTX in a new TV ad and the Banco Central and Receita Federal’s strong words for those who try to hide their crypto holdings from authorities.

We’re going to experiment with a different format this week. The original vision was to aggregate, translate and provide context around the key news happenings coming out of the country.

This worked fine for a time but the news flow has increased quite a bit over the last two months so that’s become more cumbersome to manage. So this week I’m going to break out content by general thematic organizing principles: exchanges; adoption; NFTs and gaming; regulation, policy and law enforcement. We’ll try it out this week and see how it goes.

I also came down with coronavirus last week which put a damper on productivity, so apologies as this isn’t as thorough as I would like.

Did I miss anything? Have ideas for new content, topics or formats? Leave a note in the comments or find me on Linkedin, Twitter or Telegram at @AaronStanley, or you can hit reply to this email! As always, thanks for reading!

Obrigado,

Aaron

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If you’re new here, the meta-thesis for this publication is that Brazil - with a population of 214 million and a US$1.8tn economy - is the most overlooked crypto market in the world. The objective is to highlight the important news and provide useful context for the estrangeiro (foreigner) English-speaking audience.

If that’s something you’re interested in, then hit subscribe if you haven’t done so already read on👇 Please share with others who might find it interesting!

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Hiring Spotlight

Binance is hiring a Latin America PR director based out of Sao Paulo that will oversee PR and comms for key Latam markets. You can find the Linkedin posting here.

Bitso is hiring for a variety of positions for its expanding Brazil operation.

• Head of Policy role will be tasked with “leading the Policy & Advocacy strategy and tactics across the whole of the Brazilian market.”

• KYC Operator to help onboard new users onto the platform.

• Community Specialist to drive interest and engagement through events, etc.

For Portuguese readers, CoinTelegraph Brasil has a handy run-down of different Brazil crypto related jobs here.

Have a job posting to highlight? Feel free to send my way

Adoption

• 48% of the Brazilian public thinks bitcoin should be made legal tender ala El Salvador, according to a new survey. 31% of respondents agreed and 17% “strongly agreed” with the idea, according to Valor Investe.

• Flamengo, the Brazilian football team with the largest fan base, has inked a deal with Socios to launch a Flamengista ‘fan token’ later this year. Socios will also serve as an official sponsor of the club until 2025. Proceeds of the token sale will be split between both entities. Flamengo stands to gross R$145m (US$28m) from the deal.

  The announcement comes on the heels of Corinthians raising R$8.7m from its $SCCP sale earlier this month. Other Brazilian clubs that have launched fan tokens this year include Coritiba, Vasco, Cruzeiro, Atlético Minero and even the Seleção Brasileiro - the nation team. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

  

• Not to be outdone, the Coritiba football club is launching a bid to tokenize the future earnings of players it develops through its youth system. Through a partnership with tokenization firm Liqi, the club keeps a set percentage of the athlete’s career earnings, while another percentage is tokenized and made available for purchase by fans and investors. Other Brazilian teams such as Cruzeiro and Vasco have inked similar deals.

• Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen and her husband Tom Brady are starring in a new television commercial promoting the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The ad first aired on September 9th during the NFL season opener. Brady and Bündchen signed on as advisors to FTX earlier this summer. (Portal do Bitcoin)

  Gisele Bündchen @giseleofficial

  Hey @kevinolearytv @StephenCurry30 @MiamiHEAT @riotgames @LCSOfficial @TSM, you in? @FTX_Official #FTXyouin

• Fernando Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo and ex-presidential candidate, criticized El Salvador’s move to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, arguing that “if nothing is done, Latin American countries will one by one lose sovereignty over their currencies.” (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

  Fernando Haddad @Haddad_Fernando

  Se nada for feito, os países da América Latina perderão um a um a soberania sobre suas moedas. Os EUA desejam um euro sem UE, isto é, uma AL dolarizada com um muro nos separando do norte. O pior cenário. Só um Brasil insubmisso pode refrear essa tendência.

  

  www1.folha.uol.com.brEl Salvador torna-se nesta terça primeiro país a ter o bitcoin como moeda oficialNa esteira do vizinho, investidores de Honduras lançam primeiro caixa eletrônico de criptomoedas do país

NFTs and Gaming

• Brazilian auto racing legend Cacá Bueno will soon have his own line of NFTs commemorating his various victories. The collectibles will be available to the public beginning September 19 on the Rarum MotorSports platform, after the conclusion of the Velocitta da Stock Car race in Goiânia. Cacá Bueno won the Stock Car Brasil race five times. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

• Yield Guild Games partners with local gaming startup BAYZ to offer scholarships, incentives and events for Axie Infinity players in Brazil. YGG founder Gabby Dizon said in a statement:

  BAYZ is helping us bring the life-changing potential of play-to-earn gaming to Brazil. YGG members have generated significant income through NFT games, improving their economic situation and building their financial education with the choices they can now make for their personal finances. The Philippines has been the epicenter of this movement, but now we want to see that impact magnified across the world. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

Exchanges and Fintechs

• Bitso is ramping up its Brazil push with a new TV marketing blitz, launching an ad campaign on Globo - one of the country’s premier networks. The aim is to reach new customers who haven’t yet purchased crypto assets or established an account with another local exchange. “Brazil is our priority and our long-term bet,” said Bitso CEO Daniel Vogel, who recently relocated from Mexico to Sao Paulo. (Exame)

• Huobi, the Hong Kong-listed exchange, is launching a marketing push of its own in the Brazilian markets, is giving away R$50,000 to the first 800 new users who create accounts and deposit funds onto the platform. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

• Parfin is launching a full-service “Crypto Plug and Play” custody product. The platform will facilitate trading, management and custody of crypto assets, with the objective of connecting the world of digital banks, investment platforms and over-the-counter trading desks. The crypto exchange Foxbit will be the platform’s first customer. (Valor Investe)

Policy, Regulation and Law Enforcement

• Maurício Moura, an official at the Banco Central, made his views clear on cryptocurrency privacy and anonymity at a recent conference focused on financial integrity and anti-money laundering:

  “The government will know everything you have in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, I guarantee it.”

  As Brazilian legislators and authorities debate the proper framework for regulating crypto, it appears that financial privacy doesn’t rank highly on their priority list. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

  

• Brazil’s Ministry of Justice says Glaidson Acácio dos Santos, operator of the alleged GAS Consultoria cryptocurrrency pyramid scheme, transferred R$1.2bn (US$228m) of bitcoin to “the largest exchange in the world”. He was arrested by Federal Police earlier this month for the scheme, which promised investors a 10% monthly return and was allegedly paid using funds from new investors. The news was reported on Fantástico, a popular news magazine program on TV Globo. (CoinTelegraph)

• A new report from CVM, Brazil’s securities regulator, found that financial scams were up 75% year-over-year 2020, with bitcoin being the preferred vehicle of the fraudistas - mentioned in 43% of reported cases.

• The auditor of the Receita Federal, Brazil’s tax collection agency, said that his institution has all of the tools to track individuals’ cryptocurrency holdings. Michel Lopes Teodoro, in an interview given in light of the GAS Consultoria pyramid scheme arrest, emphasized that criminals and others who think they can hide their proceeds using cryptocurrencies are mistaken:

  “Do not fool yourself. We can track all your Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies.”

  (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

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That’s all for this week! If you like this content please like, share and subscribe!

Até Mais,

Aaron