#185: Itaú weighs launching its own stablecoin
Plus: CVM prohibits $Eike token in Brazil; pension funds banned from holding crypto
Olá pessoal!
Greetings from Buenos Aires and welcome back to 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report for the week of March 31 - April 4, 2025.
I hope everyone had a great “Liberation Week”. Looks like we’re going to have a couple more weeks of pain in the markets before things hopefully course correct. Hang in there!
Also, I’ve spun up an English language Brazil Crypto Report Telegram community, with the aim of providing a forum where locals involved in the industry and gringos interested in the region can mingle. If that’s of interest, feel free to join using this link.
🔎 What’s in BCR this week?
Itaú looks at launching its own stablecoin
Brazilian pension funds banned from investing in crypto
CVM bans launch of EIKE Batista’s super sugarcane token in Brazil
Banco BV tokenizes its first FDIC credit rights fund
Thanks for reading and have a great week!
- AWS
🙌 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report is a free publication; if you wish to support my work you can do so by hitting the button below👇
Brazil Crypto Report is presented by
Binance is the largest platform for trading of digital assets. With over 250 million users around the world, the exchange offers over 350 trading pairs, best-in-class products and services for investors, and advanced tools for institutions players.
Binance currently holds over US$ 160 billion in user assets under custody and reached a cumulative historical trading volume of $100 trillion in 2024, showcasing the trust placed in it by users worldwide.
With user-focus at the core of its DNA, Binance continuously invests to increase usability, bring new features and deepen security.
Liquidity matters. Security is non-negotiable. Join Binance Now
🎙New Podcast!
This week’s interview is with Arnold Lee, who is CEO and co-founder of Sphere Labs. Sphere is one of the most exciting stablecoin startups operating in Latin America right now, moving billions of dollars in volume on its rails. This is definitely a company to be watching in 2025 as stablecoin momentum continues to grow. Definitely make sure you tune in for this if you’re operating in the stablecoin space.
🎧 You can find Brazil Crypto Report content wherever you listen to podcasts: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon | Anchor | YouTube
Itaú looks at launching its own stablecoin
Brazil’s largest private bank is considering its own stablecoin, pegged to the dollar or real, as part of its digital asset strategy.
Guto Antunes, head of digital assets, stated at an event hosted by the bank in Sao Paulo that it is closely monitoring the development and potential benefits of stablecoins.
In particular, with the regulatory tide in the US changing and the Trump Administration promoting private stablecoin development, this proposition becomes more compelling:
“Of course, it is always on the agenda. This issue of stablecoins has always been on Itaú's radar. We cannot ignore the power that blockchain has to settle transactions atomically.”
“We are always open to understanding for our client whether it makes sense to have a stablecoin, even one in reais, within Itaú.”
He emphasized that the determining factor will be the rules issued by Brazil’s Central Bank, which released a public consultation on stablecoins last year and is now formulating rules based on feedback from the market.
Antunes explained:
“It depends on the consultation, because we have to understand what it can do. The stablecoin market has already gained usability for the customer, but we need to know where we can advance on the topic.”
Specifically, the bank is looking at stablecoins that provide some type of reward mechanism to incentivize users.
Antunes also explained that the bank is also in favor of allowing customers to self-custody crypto assets and stablecoins — an issue that became controversial in the last Central Bank consultation:
“We are in favor of customer freedom, as long as it is within the law. We follow all anti-money laundering and financial security rules,”
Valor CoinDesk BlockNews CriptoFacil CoinTelegraph Brasil
Brazilian pension funds banned from investing in crypto
Brazil’s National Monetary Council, its top financial policy body, banned certain types of pension funds from investing in cryptocurrencies because the asset class is deemed too risky.
Specifically, closed pension vehicles known as EFPCs are impacted by the rule. These funds manage retirement savings for thousands of unionized and company-employed workers.
Brazil’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement:
“The resolution also prohibits investments in virtual assets, considering their specific investment characteristics and associated risk.”
CoinDesk Exame CriptoFacil CoinTelegraph Brasil
CVM bans launch of $EIKE in Brazil
A crypto project promoted by businessman Eike Batista has run aground with Brazil’s securities regulator. The agency released a statement prohibiting the offering of the $EIKE cryptocurrency in the country.
The token was launched in February as a way to raise funds for a new energy project that uses “super sugarcane”.
The agency stated that it had investigated the project and determined that its offering is a security and ordered its suspension due to the fact that the project and none of the involved participants are authorized to offer securities in Brazil.
The agency determined that the project was:
"using the appeal to the public residing in Brazil to enter into contracts that fall within the legal concept of securities".
The CVM "ordered the aforementioned participants, their partners, managers, administrators and agents to immediately suspend the activities of offering securities to the public residing in Brazil", with a daily fine of R$100,000 for non-compliance.
Recall that $EIKE is a Solana-based project for tokenizing real-world assets.
Eike’s representatives told the press that the token is not intended for sale, distribution or marketing in Brazil, and that it:
“does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities or crypto assets to residents of Brazil or any jurisdiction where such offer or sale is unlawful.”
Exame InfoMoney Valor BlockNews BeinCrypto Livecoins CoinTelegraph Brasil
🗞Brazil Crypto News Rundown
📈 Markets
Banco BV is structuring its first tokenized Credit Rights Investment Fund (known as a FDIC in Portuguese), in partnership with tokenization firm Liqi. The investment vehicle will help finance the expansion of LedWave, which manufacturers LED panels. (Valor)
The number of crypto investors in Brazil rivals the number who invest in traditional investment funds, a new survey by Binance and Locomotiva found. Savings accounts, despite their low returns, remain the most popular investment option among Brazilian consumers (66%), followed by payment and income accounts and private bonds. (BeinCrypto) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Bitcoin has already become a store of value instrument, Caio Fasanella, head of investments at Nomad, argued during an appearance on Exame’s Future of Money podcast.
Lukka and ABCripto teamed up to launch the ABCripto Brazilian Market Indices
📲 Adoption
BlockTrends highlighted the top 5 most bizarre Brazilian memecoins, including Ovo Coin, which was launched on Solana to protest rising egg prices in the country.
Pedro Guerra, chief of staff to Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, went on the BlockTrends podcast to discuss his recent comments about why Brazil could adopt a strategic bitcoin reserve
Brazilian startup Absense launched a blockchain-based digital will solution that allows social media influencers to preserve their estate. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
A blockchain-based version of the Brazilian National Identity Card will be the only valid ID document in Brazil by the year 2032, the government intends. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
44% of Latin American consumers surveyed by Bitget Wallet cited the importance of cryptocurrencies in accessing global payments, while 32% said they do not want to rely on banks and centralized banking systems. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazil ranks 15th in the world ranking of academic research related to artificial intelligence, according to the Center for Management and Strategic Studies. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Antonio Geraldo da Silva, president of the Brazilian Psychiatric Association, said that addiction to gambling websites is very similar to addiction to drugs. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
🏛 Policy, Regulation and Enforcement
BlockTrends examined the six largest bitcoin crimes in Brazil’s history
The 2025 income tax season marks the first time that crypto assets held offshore will be taxed at a new tax rate of up to 15%. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Digital law experts interviewed by CoinTelegraph Brasil argue that the government’s decision to prohibit users of the World identity protocol from receiving cryptocurrency payments for registering their biometric information is wrong. Carlos Affonso Souza, a partner at Rennó Penteado Sampaio Advogados:
“Instead of affecting the sphere of data protection, the order seems to have targeted the onerous nature of the legal transaction. People can now continue to have their iris photographed to participate in the project, but without receiving any financial incentive for doing so.”
A federal deputy proposed to use bitcoins confiscated by the government to fund cancer research. (CriptoFacil)
A Spanish national claims to have been kidnapped for five days in Sao Paulo and had US$50 million in cryptocurrencies stolen from him. (CriptoFacil) (Livecoins) (Portal do Bitcoin) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilian judges are now authorized to seize crypto assets from debtors who fall behind on their payments, per a new memo from the Superior Tribunal de Justiça. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (BeinCrypto)
A new bill in Brazil’s Congress proposes that the country’s largest digital identity system use blockchain technology. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The CVM issued a warning about GRF Assessoria Ltda, the company behind the INVESTINBROKER platform, which offers bitcoin and other investments but does not have authorization to do so. (BeinCrypto)