🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report #4: Play-to-Earn Games, Mercado Bitcoin Co-Founder Plans New Exchange, ETH Gorilla in São Paulo Metro
Welcome to Brazil Crypto Report for the week of July 19-23, 2021, where we’re synthesizing the key crypto happenings in the southern hemisphere’s largest country.
Apologies as this edition is a bit later and briefer than usual. I was off the grid last week volunteering at a kids summer camp and am scrambling to get caught back up. This week we’re looking at the rise of “play to earn” games like Axie Infinity, another significant law enforcement action and Mercado Bitcoin co-founder Rodrigo Batista’s plans for a new crypto exchange.
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 and read on👇
Brazilian Portuguese Lesson of the Week
How to pronounce ‘bitcoin’
Pretty simple lesson here, and you’ve got a couple of pronunciation options to work with that will suffice. As we’ve discussed before, the Portuguese t frequently takes on a ch sound if it’s at the end of a word or syllable, and the ee sound is typically added to words that with a hard consonant sound like n.
Therefore, the standard pronunciation of bitcoin will be either BEECH-coin (with the emphasis on the first syllable) or beech-COIN-ee.
News Recap
Brazilian Police Seize US$33m Worth of Bitcoin in Money Laundering Investigation
The assets were seized from two individuals and 17 companies after an investigation discovered that a plot whereby crypto exchanges would acquire and sell bitcoin to dummy offshore companies. The funds were then repatriated back to Brazil via transactions for fictitious services and goods.
According to a CoinDesk report, one exchange transacted nearly US$2m worth of cryptocurrency with six shell companies over a five month period. The article states:
“The exchanges did not verify the legitimacy of the entities they dealt with or the transactions’ origin, the Brazilian police said, adding that the exchanges knowingly operated on behalf of a criminal organization dedicated to laundering money through cryptocurrencies.”
The law enforcement notice did not reveal the names of the crypto exchanges implicated in the action.
Axie Infinity Fever Surges in Brazil with Ripio Listings
The popular “play to earn” NFT game continues to pick up traction in the Brazilian market, as Ripio, the crypto exchange, listed its native AXS and SLP tokens last week.
The listing means that players and traders can now use Pix, the real-time payment service launched by the Brazilian Central Bank in late 2020, to acquire these tokens, according to a report from CoinTelegraph Brasil.
“I believe that the future is in play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity. It’s the first of its kind to become popular in Brazil, but has already generated an enormous impact, demonstrating that there is a lot of room for growth in this market,” said Bernardo Teixeira, CFO of Grupo Ripio.
“Play-to-earn” blockchain games, in which players are rewarded in the game’s native cryptocurrency for playing the game, have grown in popularity in the developing world economies as an income source - particularly during pandemic lockdowns when many people were unable to work.
This trend first emerged in the Philippines but has spilled over into South American markets like Brazil and Argentina.
“Axie Infinity plays an important role of introducing gamers to cryptocurrencies and to Ripio,” Teixeira told CoinTelegraph Brasil, noting that gaming has long been an onramp into the world of crypto and will continue to play that role.
AXS tokens have surged by 940% in the last 30 days, according to CoinGecko.
São Paulo Metro Welcomes Giant Blue Gorilla With Ethereum Symbol in Hand
The São Paulo-Morumbi metro station is now home to a giant Ethereum gorilla sculpture, courtesy of H4wnee - an artist from the northeastern state of Paraíba.
The display, as reported by CoinTelegraph Brasil, is part of the inaugural “Pirate Utopias” exposition which features various works from H4wnee across metro stations throughout São Paulo. Other recognizable works include Mickey Mouse, Ronald McDonald, Barbie Pikachu and Britney Spears.
Mercado Bitcoin Co-Founder Rodrigo Batista to Launch New Crypto Exchange
After selling his stake in Mercado Bitcoin in 2018 and a stint at Harvard, Batista is getting back into the game with a new crypto exchange, Digitra.com.
The exchange, which is being funded by Batista and his partners, looks to wield a more global focus than his previous company - namely by doing business beyond the Americas in European and Asia markets. The exchange aspires to launch in November of this year, and to gain one million clients and do US$6bn worth of business in its first 12 months.
In an interview with Exame.com, Batista explained:
“Today the leader in the business of digital assets in Brazil and the world is Binance. The competition now is global and for this reason I’m creating Digitra.com, to compete in all markets. I also believe that the world of traditional finance and digital assets will converge and I am anticipating this, bringing a level of security, governance and new products”
Upon launching, Digitra.com will have versions in various languages - English, Spanish, Mandarin as well as Portuguese. While it will be global in scope, the company will be headquartered in Brazil - at least at the outset - because the country “is one of the countries with the best structure for digital asset companies,” Batista explained.
The move means that the Brazilian crypto exchange market will be getting even more crowded alongside Binance, Mercado Bitcoin, NovaDAX, Bitso, Ripio, Foxbit, BitPreço and others.
The platform is scheduled to open up to customers in November. It will offer trading in cryptocurrencies and focus on other instruments like tokenized stocks.
Did I miss anything? Have ideas for new content, topics or formats? Leave a note in the comments or hit me up on Linkedin, Twitter or Telegram at @AaronStanley. Thanks for reading!
Até mais,
Aaron