#148: Messi, Ronaldinho promote Solana memecoin
Plus: Anbima issues guidance for funds investing in crypto; LIFT Lab returns
Olá pessoal!
Greetings from Amsterdam and welcome back to 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report for the week of July 8-12, 2024!
Apologies for publishing this a day late. I’ve been running around Brussels and Amsterdam for the last 10 days so finally getting caught up.
I was at EthCC in Brussels last week (where it was great seeing many of you IRL!) and then had the chance to tour a data center in the Netherlands that is providing storage on the Filecoin network and compute power to distributed GPU networks like io.net.
I’m off the next couple of weeks but will keep the newsletters and podcasts coming on the normal cadence!
🔍What’s in BCR this week?
Anbima issues new rules for funds investing in crypto
Messi and Ronaldinho promote Solana memecoin
Central Bank’s LIFT Lab returns
Thanks for reading and have a great week!
-AWS
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New podcast!
This week I talk to Diego Fernandez who is the Secretary of Innovation for the City of Buenos Aires. We discuss Argentina’s Crecimiento movement which aims to bring together capital and talent, with the end goal of developing Web3 solutions that can capitalize on the country’s unique political moment.
Crecimiento will ramp up in August with the Aleph pop up city in Buenos Aires.
🎧 You can find Brazil Crypto Report content wherever you listen to podcasts: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon | Anchor | YouTube
Anbima issues rules for funds investing in crypto
Brazil’s capital markets released long-awaited guidance for investment funds and managed and portfolios that want exposure to crypto assets.
The new rules touch on governance, due diligence, price transparency and other factors relevant to the asset class.
Anbima stated that “the new rules seek to standardize the minimum governance and diligence requirements for managers and administrators, in line with CVM Resolution 175".
Recall that CVM Resolution 175, issued last October, opened the door for investment funds to allocate up to 10 percent of their AUM to crypto assets without obtaining prior approval from the CVM, Brazil’s securities regulator.
“With the changes, managers, when directly acquiring cryptoassets, must have a policy that describes the controls adopted for the management of these assets, containing the area responsible for the investment decision and the criteria used to select cryptoassets, including procedures related to the monitoring of the trading environments used and custody.”
Tatiana Guazzelli, partner at Pinheiro Neto Advogados, explained to Valor that the focus of the guidance was:
“measures related to the selection, negotiation and custody of cryptoactives, including key access management, in addition to the need to have an area responsible for the matter”.
Portal do Bitcoin CoinTelegraph Brasil Exame BlockNews
Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi promote WATER memecoin
The Solana-based memecoin WATER surged 350% after an Instagram post by Messi.
The ex-Brazilian football star turned cryptocurrency promoter Ronaldinho followed with a similar post that failed to move the price.
Water’s website explains that the currency is a “completely useless crypto, with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return.”
InfoMoney Portal do Bitcoin CoinTelegraph Brasil
🗞Brazil Crypto News Rundown
📈 Markets
Vortx QR Tokenizadora carried out the first tokenization of real estate receivables within the CVM’s regulatory sandbox. The tokens total R$54 million (US$10 million) to finance the construction of two residential towers in the city of Teresina in Piauí. The tokens expire in 2028 and will pay annual interest equivalent to IPCA (Brazil’s benchmark inflation index) plus 13 percent. (Valor)
CoinMarketCap says that Brazil is the second-largest origin of user traffic for its website, after only the US. Roughly 9% of total CMC views came from Brazil in the second quarter of 2024. You read the full report here.
MultiversX, a layer 1 blockchain that has EGLD as its native token, sees Brazil and Latin America as a key blockchain growth market, CEO Beniamin Mincu told CoinTelegraph Brasil.
"It's definitely one of our priorities, and we've already started to intensify our efforts to bring MultiversX in all forms across the continent. From community meetups in Buenos Aires to making EGLD available on Bit2ME, and much more. The same goes for Brazil.”
Brazil has the 6th highest rate of crypto adoption in the world, according to a new study by Triple-A. The report finds that 17% of the national population uses digital assets, trailing Turkey, UAE, Singapore, Argentina and Thailand. (Portal do Bitcoin)
Rogerio Melfi has an op-ed in BlockNews exploring the potential role of oracles in the Drex platform
📲 Adoption
Visa announced its sponsorship of the 2024 NFT Brasil event, which will take place September 12-13 in São Paulo. Eduardo Abreu, vice president for new business for Visa in Brazil, said:
“Supporting innovative technologies is part of Visa’s DNA. Therefore, promoting an event like NFT Brasil highlights the benefits of the development of Web3 culture, in addition to reinforcing the relevance of these emerging technologies in the digital payments industry.” (Web3News)
Brazil’s Central Bank announced the return of the LIFT Lab with a new edition focusing on blockchain, tokenization and crypto. The program has been operative since 2018 but was suspended in mid-2023 due to funding and staffing constraints at the bank. Participants in the program have received roughly R$400 million (US$80 million) worth of investment since its launch. (Portal do Bitcoin) (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (BlockNews) (Livecoins)
Vasco da Gama fan token holders will have the right to an exclusive meet and greet with football player Philippe Coutinho, a former Vasco player who has since played for Internazionale Milan, Liverpool Barcelona and others. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Portal do Bitcoin)
Solana Foundation will invest more than R$100,000 (US$20,000) in search of new Web3 talent in Brazil. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
18 year-old Brazilian surfer Sunny Pires was sponsored by NounsDAO to travel to Nicaragua and film a documentary. (Portal do Bitcoin) (Web3News)
Mercado Bitcoin announced the hiring of Tássia Skolaude as its new chief marketing officer. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
State-owned bank Caixa Economica is working with Elo and Microsoft to test an offline digital payments system within the Drex pilot. (Valor) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
InfoMoney profiles Arthur Inc co-founder Rudá Pellini about his journey from the Brazilian army to operating a multinational bitcoin mining company.
Stellar is launching an ambassador program in Brazil. (BeinCrypto)
Rio de Janeiro opened its first crypto art and technological art gallery, called Meta Gallery. It was created by Metaverse Agency as part of the Reviver Cultural project. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Crypto education platform Defiverso is partnering with Solana to coordinate the DEFIHACK event, which will involve hundreds of participants keen to build on Solana’s chain. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Mobiup was one of 20 winners of the Innovative Workplaces Award, promoted by MIT Technology Review Brasil. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
🏛 Policy, Regulation and Enforcement
Senate bill 80/2023, dealing with the issuance of sovereign currency in digital format, was the subject of a public debate before the Communications and Digital Law Commission. Those invited to testify included Fabio Araujo of the Central Bank, Emmanuel Sousa de Abreu of the Brazilian Bar Association, João Aragão of Microsoft, Andre Silva Jardim of Febraban, and several others. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Livecoins) (BlockNews)
Football player Yuri Lima was discovered to be a victim of the Braiscompany financial pyramid scheme to the tune of R$50,000. (Portal do Bitcoin)
A judge in Itajaí accepted a complaint against the partners of Sbaraini Administradora de Capitais and Titanium Asset for alleged crimes involving cryptocurrency.
The development is the result of the Federal Police’s Operation Ouranos which is investigating the R$1 billion (US$200 million) raised by the companies.
Accounts at Titanium Asset and Sbaraini were ordered frozen late last year.
Notably, the judge’s thesis does not include language stating that the companies were operating a pyramid scheme. It states:
“The complaint at no point mentions a pyramid or ponzi scheme, nor is there a complaint based on crimes against the family economy. In fact, the basic facts that gave rise to the complaint were the irregular activities of a financial institution, as well as the offering of securities without legal authorization, both crimes described in Law 7,492.” (Valor) (Portal do Bitcoin)
Federal Police and the Receita Federal launched Operation Corisco Turbo against a criminal group accused of importing large quantities of goods (specifically “electronic products”) without paying taxes. The investigation alleges that cryptocurrencies were used to facilitate the tax evasion. 51 search and seizure warrants, 25 real estate seizure warrants, 42 vehicle seizure orders were executed and R$280 million (US$51 million). (Valor) (Livecoins) (Portal do Bitcoin)
Crypto brokerages must withhold income tax on income paid out to individuals on income transfers, according to new guidance issued by the Receita Federal — Brazil’s tax authority. Tax lawyer Thiago Barbosa Wanderley of Salles Nogueira Advogados told Valor:
“[Exchanges] may suffer penalties, as well as individuals may be charged for the tax that is already outstanding” (Livecoins)
Border police seized R$100,000 (US$20,000) worth of cryptocurrency mining equipment from a car in the city of Ubiratã, Parana. (Portal do Bitcoin) (Livecoins)
Nearly 40,000 99Pay users had their PIX keys and other personal data leaked, the Central Bank alerted. However, the data in itself is not enough to be able to transfer funds out of an account. The bank stated:
“The information obtained is of a registration nature, which does not allow movement of resources, nor access to accounts or other financial information.” (Portal do Bitcoin) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)