🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report #25: Al Capone of Bitcoins
🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report #25: Al Capone of Bitcoins
👋 Olá pessoal and welcome to 🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report for the week of December 13-17, 2021.
I hope you’re gearing up for a restful finish to 2021 and have ample time to spend with family and friends during this Christmas season. I’ll be scaling back coverage over these next couple of weeks before powering up for what should be an exciting 2022.
📜 Some highlights from this week’s edition:
1️⃣ Bitso has inked a sponsorship deal with Sao Paulo Football Club
2️⃣ Hashdex has announced two key hires for its North America expansion
3️⃣ 2TM Group, the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin, is launching an investment arm
4️⃣ A Senate committee vote on a crypto regulation bill, originally scheduled for December 15, was scrapped and will be revisited in 2022.
5️⃣ “Pharaoh of Bitcoins” Glaidson Acacio dos Santos has been charged with orchestrating the attempted murder of rivals in the Rio de Janeiro crypto investment space, earning himself the nickname “Al Capone of Bitcoins.”
If you aren’t up to speed on the Eth:Rio event taking place March 14-17 you can jump in the Telegram group here.
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 English-speaking audience.
👩💻Brazil Crypto Hiring Spotlight
Crypto asset manager Hashdex made a splash with two new hires to build out its operations in the US - Matthew Flood will join as Head of Business Development, while Jack Song joins as Head of Corporate Communications and Chief of Staff. Additionally, Bruno Ramos de Sousa will relocate to the US to serve as Head of Global Expansion. Hashdex commented on the hires in a Linkedin post:
“Today's announcement marks a major step in our ongoing U.S. expansion as we continue to bring crypto opportunities to the mainstream.”
🗞Brazil Crypto News Rundown 🗞
📈 Markets
2TM Group, the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin, is launching an investment arm called 2TM Ventures focused on startups at the intersection of crypto and traditional finance. Specifically, the fund will be looking for opportunities in layer one protocols, DAOs, metaverse and decentralized finance.
Daniel Cunha, executive director of corporate development at 2TM Group, will lead the project.
The fund has already allocated more than US$32m to 10 portfolio companies. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilian investment brokerage Warren is launching a new crypto fund with a minimum investment of R$1 and no management fees. The fund will offer 100% exposure to a basket of cryptocurrencies, with 80% devoted to Bitcoin and Ethereum and 20% allocated to assets in emerging sectors like DeFi and NFTs. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The market for bitcoin-collateralized loans in Brazil has grown more than 300% in the last six months, according to a survey by Rispar. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Binance will cease to offer the $CAKE/BRL trading pair on December 24. $CAKE is the native token of PancakeSwap, meaning that Brazilian traders who want to use the platform will need to convert deposited reals into another currency before buying $CAKE. Binance did not give a reason for the decision. (Portal do Bitcoin) (Livecoins)
Asset manager Vitreo announced a new investment fund focused on metaverse companies and cryptocurrencies. The fund has been approved by the CVM, Brazil’s securities regulator, and requires an initial minimum investment of R$1,000 (US$175). A majority of the allocation will be in metaverse firms like Meta (formerly known as Facebook), Roblox, Nvidia and AMD, while 10% be allocated to NFTs and gamecoins. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Crypto “super app” Bitfy closed a R$13.3m (US$2.31m) Series A investment round led by Borderless Capital - a US-based fund focused that recently raised a US$500m fund to invest in the Algorand ecosystem - and Dash Investment Foundation. David Garcia, CEO and managing partner at Borderless Capital, said in a statement:
“We are excited to support Bitfy in its vision to allow all Brazilian users access to this new digital economy. Thanks to Bitfy's integration with the Algorand network, payments and financial services using blockchain will not be exclusive and will become a catalyst for innovation in the country.” (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Exame)
🚀Adoption
Tokenization startup Liqi will launch a token backed by credit card receivables in a new partnership online wine store Grand Cru and PagCartão.com. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Bitso has inked a sponsorship deal with São Paul Football Club worth $R13.5m (US$2.35m). Bitso is Latin America’s largest crypto exchange and is valued north of US$2bn after its latest investment round led by Tiger Global and Coatue, with Valor Capital Group and Pantera Capital participating. The SPFC recently launched its $SPFC fan token, which trades on Mercado Bitcoin. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
President Jair Bolsonaro highlighted a contract made under the prior Michel Temer administration that would have provided R$50m “to teach Indians how to use bitcoin” as an example of bad public policy. The remarks came during at an address to FIESP, a Sao Paulo-based trade body, and were made in reference to a contract that would have financed 16 different services, including mapping of Indian tribes, a database of indigenous reservations and the creation of a cryptocurrency specific to indigenous peoples. The contract was terminated shortly after Bolsonaro took office in 2019. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilian beer manufacturer Dogma is rolling out a Satoshi Hazy IPA in honor of bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Flamengo, the Rio de Janeiro-based football club, announced a partnership with MOSS that would offset two million tons worth of the team’s carbon emissions through purchases of its MCO2 token. Luis Felipe Adaime, MOSS CEO and founder, said that the partnership will make Flamengo the “most carbon neutral” football club in Brazil. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
59% of Brazilians intend to buy cryptocurrencies for the first time in 2022 and that 37% aspire to own one NFT, according to a new survey commissioned by Crypto.com. The survey of 2,000 individuals found that the main reasons given for investing in crypto assets were protection from the real’s devaluation and government interference in personal assets. Respondents also noted that the biggest barrier to adoption in Brazil is misinformation on how crypto markets functions. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Exame)
CoinPayments is integrating BRZ, the real-pegged stablecoin, into its platform - allowing users to store, send and receive funds using the asset. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
A new solar energy plant in the state of Minas Gerais is being financed with cryptocurrency. The design and execution of the plant is being enacted by EnyCoin, which is native to Binance Smart Chain, and it will be paid for with fees on transactions and trades involving the crypto asset. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Nathalia Arcuri, Brazil’s most popular personal finance YouTube personality and owner of the Me Poupe! channel, is bringing two cryptocurrency experts - Caroline Souza and Kaka Furlan onto her content team. (Portal do Bitcoin)
🎮 NFTs, Gaming and Metaverse
Banco do Brasil announced that it will begin operations in the metaverse, a virtual city called Complexo. Users will be able to open accounts and earn benefits for their character. However, the world will not be built using blockchain and will not immediately allow for crypto transactions. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The Northeast Cup football league will be launching a series of NFTs and will post collectible moments and mementos for sale in Binance’s NFT marketplace. (CoinTimes)
Legendary footballer Roberto Dinamite is launching his own NFT collection. The Vasco da Gama hero and all-time highest scorer in the Campeonato Brasiliero league with 190 goals, Dinamite’s collection will feature great moments from his career combined with an original soundtrack (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilian actor TV Globo personality Caio Castro announced his participation as a co-founder in a new play-to-earn game called Evoverse, which is set for release in April 2022. The game will have similar setup and game modes as Axie Infinity, though the setting will be one in which “robots became conscious and started a migratory process across the vastness of the universe.” Little additional information is provided about the team behind the project and their relevant crypto market experience. (Portal do Bitcoin) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Photo credit: Portal do Bitcoin
Brazilian communications giant Claro will partner with the city of Petropolis to launch Espaço Claro Metaverso, a physical space that will offer total immersion in digital reality. The venue will be set up next to city hall as part of the city’s Christmas celebrations. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilian pop singer Pabllo Vittar will airdrop to fans a new collection of NFTs called “aqua, ventus, terra, pyros.” (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
🏛 Public Policy and Enforcement
A Senate Economic Affairs Committee scrapped a vote scheduled for December 15 on a comprehensive crypto regulation bill that was approved by the Chamber of Deputies earlier this month. Consideration of the legislation will resume in 2022. The proposal, championed by Federal Deputy Aureo Ribeiro, would create a regulatory framework for crypto exchanges and brokerages in the country while ramping up criminal penalties. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Portal do Bitcoin)
Ribeiro, for his part, is confident that his crypto regulation bill will become law in 2022, potentially as early as March. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (CoinTimes)
“Pharaoh of Bitcoins” Glaidson Acacio dos Santos and five other members of the GAS Consultoria operation were charged with attempted murder of competitors in the Rio de Janiero crypto investment market. The Public Ministry alleges that Glaidson operated like an old school mobster - referring to him as the “Al Capone of Bitcoins” - and was the mastermind behind a March 20 attack in Cabo Frio that left the victim, Nilson Alves da Silva - aka ‘Nilsinho,’ blind and quadriplegic. Nilsinho was allegedly disclosing that GAS would soon be the target of a federal investigation, which it was in August with Operation Kryptos. GAS is also under investigation over the assassination of teenage crypto investor Wesley Pessano, who was shot dead in his Porsche last summer in São Pedro da Aldeia. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (CoinTimes)
The first sets of luxury goods seized in the arrest of “Bitcoin King” Cláudio José de Oliveira were auctioned off on December 13 for R$430,800 (US$75K) in the state of Paraná. Oliveira, operator of Grupo Bitcoin Banco, was taken down by Federal Police in Operation Daemon in July. Among the items auctioned off were purses from Chanel and Hermes, Louis Vuitton bags and Cartier sunglasses. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Portal do Bitcoin)
Digital goods like avatars from metaverse platforms would be eligible for inclusion in wills and terms of inheritance under a new proposed bill from Federal Deputy Elias Vaz. The bill also proposes that blockchain technology be incorporated into the creation of the “digital will.” "(CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The Supremo Tribunal de Justiça, Brazil’s Supreme Court, denied a Habeas Corpus petition for two Rio de Janeiro defendants accused of running a theft operation stealing bitcoins from investment accounts. (Portal do Bitcoin)
MSK Invest, a company that claims to advise clients on cryptocurrency investing, has allegedly stopped paying its clients in what is believed to be an exit scam. Dozens of customers have reported being unable to withdraw funds in recent days on official consumer websites as well as WhatsApp and Instagram. MSK has not denied the situation but has attributed to uncertainty in the market following the passage of a crypto regulation bill by the Chamber of Deputies. (Portal do Bitcoin)