🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report #22: No More Waiting for Neymar NFTs 🏆
👋 Hello everyone and welcome to 🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report for the week of November 22-26.
To all of our US readers we hope you had a pleasant Thanksgiving Weekend.
Some exciting news this week:
🔥 MercadoPago enables crypto buys, sells and custody
🏆 Crypto.com sponsors the Copa Libertadores,
⚽️ Binance sponsors Santos Football Club and issues a Santos fan token
🥸 Sergio Moro’s “economic guru” doesn’t understand bitcoin
💣 Most importantly: Neymar NFTs (!)
Public Service Announcement: The Banco Central will be hosting the seventh and final edition of its Digital Real webinar series on Tuesday, November 30 at 11:00 Brazil time. It will feature representatives from ConsenSys, R3 and G+D Currency Technology.
🚨 Thanks to everyone who has filled out the reader survey. Please take 3 minutes to weigh in with your feedback on this publication if you haven’t done so already!
Até mais,
Aaron
🙏 Special thanks to Celo Community Fund for supporting Brazil Crypto Report!
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.
👩💻Brazil Crypto Hiring Spotlight
Binance is looking for to fill six Brazil-specific roles, including a Brazil country director, operations manager, business development manager, compliance manager, senior legal counsel and community manager.
Lucas Chaise, a former partner at XP Investimentos, has left the firm to join cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin as director of investor relations and corporate development. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
For Portuguese readers, CoinTelegraph Brasil has a handy run-down of different Brazil crypto related jobs here.
🗞Brazil Crypto News Rundown 🗞
📈 Markets
B3, Brazil’s primary stock exchange, is prepping for a potential launch of cryptocurrency futures contracts. The primary blocker is determining whether trades should be referenced against an index linked to USD or BRL. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Mercado Bitcoin announced the listing of eight new cryptocurrencies, with four specific to the metaverse. The new tokens include SLP, YGG, dYdX, SAND, ALICE, AMP, AUDIO and QNT. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Banco Bradesco will allow clients to offset their carbon footprints via tokenized carbon credits issued by Ambipar. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
BitcoinTrade has listed KSM, the native token of the Polkadot sandbox chain Kusama. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
NovaDax is permanently removing fees on bitcoin trades. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Affonso Pastore, former Banco Central president and “economic guru” advisor to Sérgio Moro’s presidential campaign, said that cryptocurrencies are a “collective insanity” that costs Brazil US$6bn per year. He said in an interview with O Antagonista:
"I think this is crazy…I really can't understand what the hell people have inside their heads." (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
🚀Adoption
MercadoLibre will provide crypto buying, selling and custody services to users in Brazil through MercadoPago, its digital payments app. The services were made available to a test group of customers earlier this month and will be rolled out to its broader user base in the coming weeks. MercadoLibre is Latin America’s largest e-commerce platform with approximately 132m users. The firm announced in May that it had purchased US$7.8m worth of bitcoin for its treasury.
Tulio Oliveira, a vice president at MercadoPago, told Bloomberg that the firm aims to roll out the services to the rest of Latin America after Brazil, adding:
“We took the time to study and learn before deciding to step into crypto. This has a transformational potential ahead and opens up a new avenue for us.”
Binance announced a three year sponsorship deal with Santos, the Sao Paulo-based football club, and will carry the Santos fan token as part of its Launchpool service. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilians tweeted about cryptocurrency 4 million times between January and September 2021, making it one of the most sought after financial topics among Brazilian Twitter users. 62 of the top 100 finance hashtags on Brazil Twitter referenced cryptocurrencies during that time. (Valor Investe)
Gol purchased MCO2 tokens, issued by Moss, to offset the carbon footprint of Copa Libertadores charter flights. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
In an appearance on Flow Podcast, Glenn Greenwald called on the political Left to better understand the value proposition of bitcoin. The British journalist turned Brazilian resident (who now resides in Rio de Janeiro) was the primary disseminator of the Edward Snowden revelations of 2013. He explained:
“The left needs to start to understand the potential of bitcoin. All the work that we did starting with Snowden, on privacy and encryption, it was all getting to the point of bitcoin. Crypto will prevent the possibility of someone censoring, as happens in cases that force Facebook and Twitter. And it will destroy the possibility of having centralized power.” (Portal do Bitcoin)
Hashdex head of growth Roberta Antunes believes that “everyone will be an investor in cryptocurrencies” in Brazil. This is because the country has developed a favorable regulatory environment to crypto markets and products, such as exchange-traded funds (of which there are now five). She explained in an interview with InvestNews:
“I think there will come a time when it will be normal for every Brazilian investor, when thinking about their allocation, to include cryptocurrencies in their portfolio. He will think of equities, [cashflow-driven instruments], fixed income, and that 2% or more of cryptos in a long-term universe, up to five years.”
Brazilians can now buy bitcoin at 40,000 casas lotéricas (lottery outlets) throughout the country through a partnership with UK-based FastBitcoins. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Banco Capitual, a digital bank, will give away R$30 (US$5.36) of bitcoin to new users. The promotion will run from November 23 to December 6 and is contingent upon a R$100 deposit. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Crypto.com will be an official sponsor of CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores, Latin America’s premier football tournament. Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, said in a statement:
“Our research shows Latin America is leading the way in embracing cryptocurrency, with 40% of Latin Americans saying they are interested in buying crypto in the near future. Naturally we were eager to support the continent’s most important football competition.” (CoinDesk)
🎮 NFTs and Gaming
Neymar is launching his own NFT collection through a new partnership with NFTSTAR. The Brazilian footballer, currently playing for Paris-St. Germain, will showcase his career highlights through NFT videos, animations, photos and digital art. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Vasco da Gama is launching a series of anti-racism NFTs in honor of Black Consciousness Day. In partnership with Binance, the Rio de Janeiro football club is launching the collection to highlight its role as a pioneer against racism in Brazilian football. (TecMundo) (Valor Investe)
Source: Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama
Brazilian exchange BitPreço is giving away 22 NFT starships native to the play-to-earn game Star Atlas in a new promotion. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Dux Games announced a partnership with Genopets, a “move to earn” game built on Solana, with the goal of creating a Brazilian guild focused on training and supporting players. (Money Times)
🏛 Policy, Regulation and Law Enforcement
The Brazilian Central Bank will for the first time authorize blockchain-issued tokens for use inside the national financial system. The authorization will go to Brasil OTC, a company selected for the Banco Central’s regulatory sandbox. Brasil OTC uses a blockchain, built on R3’s Corda, to tokenize private debt securities while acting as a registrar and settlement agent for token transfers. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The Banco Central selected six other projects for the first cohort of its regulatory sandbox. Among those selected include a proposal from JPMorgan to expand use of its JPM Coin in the country. (Blocknews)
Mercado Bitcoin was ordered to reimburse a client who had 0.71 worth of bitcoin stolen from his account. The exchange denied any wrongdoing and claimed that the client had been a victim of a phishing attack. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The disappeared owner of a Cabo Frio-based crypto pyramid scheme has reportedly reappeared in the island paradise of Fernando de Noronha. Rogério Cruz’s company Alphabets allegedly promised investors 15-30% returns before disappearing with more than R$10m (US$1.8m). (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
“Bitcoin King” Cláudio Oliveira has been denied a habeas corpus petition for the third time in a month. Oliveira, founder of Grupo Bitcoin Banco, was arrested by Federal Police in August on charges of embezzlement, bankruptcy crimes and crimes against the financial system. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Yet another cryptocurrency pyramid scheme out of Cabo Frio has reportedly closed its doors. Malpe Investimentos had promised investors 10-15% monthly returns to investors, but issued a letter to investors saying it would be unable to honor its commitments and was unable to make payroll for the 25th of November. (Livecoins)