🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report #29: Celo's cREAL Stablecoin Goes Live
Olá Pessoal 👋 and welcome to 🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report for the week of Jan 24-28, 2022.
Circling back quick to our big news from last week’s edition, where we wrote about Rio de Janeiro’s bold move to “go full crypto” allocating 1% of its treasury reservers to crypto assets, offering discounts on taxes paid in bitcoin and launching its own Crypto Rio cryptocurrency.
This past week, Rio de Janeiro secretary of economic development Chicão Bulhões reaffirmed the city’s moves during a CoinDesk TV interview, arguing that while the decision may have caught a number of locals off guard and feeling skeptical, it’s a critical part of renewing Rio’s economy.
He explained that the Rio’s move into crypto was inspired by Miami’s flirtations than El Salvador’s:
"We know that [bitcoin] is volatile, that some people criticize us for that, but it is the future, and Rio wants to be a reference for the world as a cryptocurrency-friendly city, like Miami or Zug in Switzerland.”
Bulhões also said that he sees crypto adoption as a beneficial pattern for Brazil, particularly given the economic struggles the company has faced recently:
"The last four years have been difficult for Brazil with inflation. And we know that some cryptocurrencies are deflationary and can be used for people not to lose purchasing power. That got people interested in the possibility of having an alternative to central banks, and having more possibilities to fight inequality.”
Some unrelated news that will make Brazilians smile: the Argentine Football Association inked a mega-sponsorship deal with Binance which would have made it the AFA’s official crypto exchange platform for the next five years. However, there was a minor problem: the AFA had already inked a contract with Socios.com in May 2021, when the Argentine National Team became the first national federation to launch a fan token. An Argentine court ordered the suspension of the the contract with Binance after Socios.com filed a complaint. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Até mais and we’ll see you in the news review after the break,
- Aaron
Perguntas? Sugestões? Find me at aaron@brazilcrypto.report, @AaronStanley on Telegram or on Linkedin
🙏 Special thanks to NEAR Foundation 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
Before diving into the jobs spotlight, it’s worth highlighting here that Brazil has modified its immigration rules to grant so-called “digital nomad” foreign professionals working remotely a one-year visa. Given the remote-first nature of the crypto labor market, I would hope to see greater numbers of these professionals spending time in Brazil soon.
Job Openings
This week we’re spotlighting several Brazil-specific job openings at Crypto.com, a leading exchange based out of Hong Kong that has more than 10 million users worldwide.
Account Manager - Institutional Sales - Latam - to build up a client base of local institutional and high-net worth investor clientele
Community Manager (Brazil) - to head up Crypto.com’s community building efforts in the country
Brazil Country Manager - to oversee the launch of new products and services in Brazil
Director, Institutional Sales, Latam - responsible for building out short, medium and long-term sales strategies in Brazil
Institutional Sales Manager, Latam - responsible for identifying and onboarding new clients in the region
🗞Brazil Crypto News Rundown 🗞
📈 Markets
Imports of cryptocurrencies totaled US$6bn ($R32.2bn) in 2021, per the Banco Central. (Valor Investe)
XP Investimentos and Rico are teaming up to launch XP Trend Metaverso, a fund that tracks companies operating in the metaverse. The index tracks the Bloomberg Metaverse Index, which includes 30 companies like Meta (formerly known as Facebook), Apple and Microsoft. With a minimum investment of R$100 (US$18.63), the product is geared toward retail investors. The Metaverse is expected to be an US$800bn market by 2024, according to a new Bloomberg report. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
BitcoinTrade listed LUNA and Balancer, two popular DeFi tokens. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
CryptoCars, Crypto Planes and CryptoGuards - three “Play-to-Earn” game tokens that have become popular among Brazilians, have each lost 99% of their value in recent weeks, prompting outcry and speculation of an exit scam. Other coins that are popular with Brazilians per CoinGecko are not doing hot lately, either. (Livecoins)
Binance has made 19 new cryptocurrencies available for purchase to Brazilians with a credit card, including Yield Guild Games (YGG), Alchemix (ALCX), Secret (SCRT), Gitcoin (GTC) and more. (Portal do Bitcoin)
Exchange Bitget has listed BabyDoge, a popular Dogecoin-inspired memecoin, after enthusiasm from its Portuguese-speaking community. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
🚀Adoption
The cREAL, Celo’s new Brazilian real pegged stablecoin, is live for use in Brazil and can be acquired on FlowBTC, Ripio and NovaDax. Celo Foundation president Rene Reinsberg told CoinDesk:
"There was a lot of excitement for crypto in Brazil. But specifically in the Celo community, we have seen a lot of teams built on Celo, integrated with Celo, using cUSD. From the outset, Brazil was obviously one of the strongest markets in terms of adoption."
Some other key takeaways from the cREAL announcement:
Crypto wallets Coins and Bitfy have integrated the stablecoin.
Unlike other stablecoins that are backed by fiat currency or held in a trust or bank account, the cREAL maintains its peg to the real in decentralized algorithmic fashion.
Users will be able to send transactions cheaply - with fees of less than 1 cent - and quickly, with just 5 second block times.
While cREAL’s primary purpose is for mobile payments, it can also be used across a variety of centralized and decentralized finance applications in the Celo ecosystem.
Bitfy users will be able to make payments with cREAL at millions of merchants around Brazil via the Cielo network, the largest credit and debit card operator in the country. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Portal do Bitcoin) (InfoMoney) (BeinCrypto) (Blocknews) (Criptofacil)
Camila Rioja, Brazil lead at Celo Foundation, said in a statement:
“The rate of cryptocurrency adoption in high-growth markets—in particular Brazil—not only signals growing excitement for this new digital economy, but the advance of real world use cases. This traction, combined with Brazil’s regulatory, market, and community conditions, uniquely positions it as an environment where a project like Celo will thrive.”
Adoption of cryptocurrencies in Brazil grew from 10.1% of the population to 14.4% of the population from October to December 2021, per a study by Finder. Bitcoin, Solana and Ethereum checked as the most popular in that time frame among users. (Livecoins)
Brazil has the most sophisticated usage of digital assets in South America, according to Brianna Kernan, South America lead at Chainalysis. The country accounts for the majority of transaction in the region and received more than $91bn in digital assets between mid-2020 and mid-2021. (Exame)
NuBank appears to be preparing to launch a cryptocurrency consultancy business, per filings with INPI, the federal intellectual property registrar. (Livecoins)
Brazil is among the three countries with the most MetaMask users, Consensys CEO Joe Lubin said at the Future of Money virtual summit, hosted by Exame. Lubin also said that he has been providing advice to the Banco Central on its Digital Real project. (Exame)
KlimaDAO has inked a partnership with MOSS to incorporate the firms’s MCO2 currency into the DAO’s treasury, meaning that MCO2 holders can purchase KLIMA at a discount. KlimaDAO is a DeFi protocol that seeks environmental preservation by acquiring tokenized carbon credits. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
A Brazilian cryptocurrency investor could be just the second Brazilian to travel to space after he won a free passage via an NFT raffle by the company Astranaut at the North America Bitcoin Conference in Miami. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The Ministry of Science, Technology is looking to hire a blockchain researcher. (Livecoins)
Popular YouTuber and investment guru Thiago Nigro, aka “Primo Rico”, said that he has been buying the dip on the latest market downturn. (Portal do Bitcoin)
🎮 NFTs, Gaming and Metaverse
Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has submitted an eyebrow-raising trademark application with the National Institute of Industrial Property. The submission, filed by Meta Platforms, is for what appears to be a cryptocurrency wallet. It cites on several occasions the use of decentralized and open-source digital currencies such as bitcoin, and it hints at broader ambitions to launch a crypto trading platform in Brazil. It reads:
“Design, development and implementation of software for third-party verification services for digital currency transactions, including (but not limited to) transactions involving Bitcoin currency….“Computer services, namely, creating an online virtual environment for the sale and purchase of digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrency, digital and blockchain assets, digitized assets, digital securities, crypto-securities and utility securities.” (Livecoins) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Vinicius Jr, the 20 year-old Brazilian football superstar currently playing for Real Madrid, will have an NFT series documenting his career. (Exame)
Mercado Bitcoin teamed up with NFT art platform Tropix to release an NFT series devoted to protecting indigenous territory in the state of Rondônia. The auction of 12 different pieces of art began last week, with as much as 95% of the proceeds going toward a non-profit entity support indigenous rights, in particular those of the Paiter Suruí people - who have faced threats from illegal logging and deforestation. (Folha de S. Paulo) (Estado de Sao Paulo) (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Portal do Bitcoin)
TIM Brasil, the mobile and telecoms operator, opened a store in the Cryptovoxels metaverse. The store is based on a concept store that recently opened in Barra Shopping in Rio de Janeiro and features a metaverse space where customers can use VR glasses to watch an explanation of how the virtual environment works. The metaverse store will also sell NFTs themed around the new 5G connectivity service scheduled to arrive in Brazil this year. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Livecoins)
TIM store in Cryptovoxels. Source: Livecoins... Brazilian YouTuber Cauê Moura sharply criticized the emergence of NFTs in a viral video, calling NFT owners “suckers” who hold “exclusive JPEGs” and are helping to prop up capitalism and inequality. Moura has 5.2m followers on YouTube.(CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Portal do Bitcoin)
🏛 Public Policy and Enforcement
The state of Santa Catarina has launched a new service called CyberGaeco to combat crimes involving bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, as well as other cyber crimes. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Livecoins)
GAS Consultoria has presented a plan to reimburse clients harmed by the alleged bitcoin pyramid scheme, which raised R$38bn (US$7bn). The number of investors involved is currently 67,000, though that number is believed to be as high as 200,000. However, the freezing of GAS assets, the arrest of GAS operator “Pharaoh of Bitcoins” Glaidson Acacio dos Santos and the flight of his wife Merelis Zerpa (believed to be in the United States) present barriers to implementing the plan. Details of the reimbursement plan, such as how many people will be reimbursed, how much they will be paid and how the payments will be made, were not disclosed. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Portal do Bitcoin)
William Douglas, the sole judge to vote to release Glaidson Acácio dos Santos from prison, has left the group responsible for judging the case. (Portal do Bitcoin)
Glaidson was again denied release by via habeas corpus petition by the Supreme Tribunal Federal, Brazil’s Supreme Court. The decision was made on the grounds that he would likely flee Brazil upon release and thus imprisonment is warranted. (Portal do Bitcoin)
CVM, Brazil’s securities regulator, issued a warning to investors about IC Markets, an Australian forex, derivatives and cryptocurrency trading platform. It asserts that IC Markets has been accepting funds from Brazilian investors in unauthorized fashion. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Portal do Bitcoin) (Valor Investe)
The Banco Central’s website crashed due to overwhelming traffic after the launch of the Values Receivable System. The VRS allows citizens to check if they have a right to claim any of the R$8bn worth of funds “forgotten” in banks around the country. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The Receita Federal, Brazil’s tax authority, collected a record R$1.9tn (US$354bn) in revenues for 2021. Part of this revenue comes from cryptocurrency traders, who must pay tax when trades exceed R$35k per month and a profit is incurred. The agency put out guidance late last year stating that crypto-to-crypto transactions were also taxable events, not just crypto-to-fiat moves. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
A Brazilian crypto investor had 28.7 bitcoins in his Binance account blocked by the exchange in September, allegedly without reason or transparency. (Livecoins)
An Israeli man cyber crime operator residing in Brazil was sentenced to eight years in prison after being arrested by Federal Police in 2019. (Livecoins)
Yet another alleged pyramid scheme out of Cabo Frio called Diamond Consultoria is the subject of investigation. (Livecoins)