#207: Oranje looks to become Latam's biggest BTC treasury company
Plus: Nubank sees surge in crypto swap activity; Mercado Bitcoin launches HNWI service
Olá pessoal!
Welcome back to Brazil Crypto Report for the week of September 8-12, 2025.
Last week was an emotional one. The events in the US have been difficult to process. There’s a lot to process and it isn’t easy. The world is in a difficult position right now, and everybody is being impacted not just Americans.
I hope you’re able to take some time to take care of yourself physically and mentally. I need to do more of that myself, to be perfectly honest.
Anyways, I’ll be at the Stellar Meridian conference in Rio de Janeiro this week. I look forward to connecting with some of you there. Feel free to shoot me a note if you’ll be around
👊 Jump into the BCR English language Telegram group if you’d like to continue the conversation
📰 Top Stories this Week
Nubank Cripto sees 400% jump in crypto swaps
CVM launches Public Consultation on tokenized crowdfunding rules
Mercado Bitcoin launches new service aimed at high net worth individuals
Oranje to becomes Latam’s largest bitcoin treasury company
Thanks for reading and have a great week!
- AWS
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🎙️New Podcasts!
This week’s podcast is a panel discussion I hosted onsite at the Stablecoin Conference 2025 in Mexico City, hosted by Bitso Business.
This was a great conversation that explores how stablecoins have evolved from being primarily tools for crypto trading and remittances into critical commercial infrastructure.
I’m joined by Nick Philpott, co-founder of Zodia Markets, Monica Ramirez, Managing Director for Stablecoins at Anchorage, and Peter Wexler, Crypto Business Development lead at Visa, discuss these trends from their respective vantage points.
🙌 Also check out BCR on your preferred podcast platform YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
Nubank Cripto sees 400% jump in crypto swaps
Nubank’s crypto product realized a 400% increase in swaps between cryptocurrencies during the first half of 2025.
This segment grew from just 5% of total transactions at the end of 2024 to 25%.
The company attributed the growth to users converting altcoin profits into stablecoins like USDC.
Notably, the average swap ticket size for these swaps is about five times larger than that of standard buy/sell transactions, indicating users are deploying more significant portions of their portfolios via swaps.
In response to the demand, the platform announced that it will begin applying discounted trading fees in real time. Previously there was a two-day delay.
Portal do Bitcoin CoinTelegraph Brasil Livecoins BeinCrypto
CVM Launches Public Consultation on Resolution 88
The CVM, Brazil’s securities regulator, is launching a public consultation to revise Resolution 88 with the goal of increasing fundraising limits and expanding participation in debt tokenization.
Proposed changes include raising issuer revenue thresholds, allowing funding of up to R$150 million per separated asset, eliminating lock-up periods, permitting settlements via stablecoins or Drex, and creating permissioned secondary markets to boost credit access for small and medium enterprises.
With debt raised via tokens in Brazil has increased from R$7 million in 2022 to over R$2.2 billion so far in 2025.
Mercado Bitcoin launches high net worth service
MB Ultra is a new white glove service tailored to high net work clients and family offices, with the goal of managing R$2 billion in assets under management.
Roberto Dagnoni, president of Mercado Bitcoin, said in a statement:
"The creation of MB Ultra is a natural consequence of this trajectory: a strategic step to increasingly better serve investors who demand sophistication, depth, and security in the dialogue about digital and traditional assets.”
Led by Felipe Whitaker, a veteran from UBS and BTG Pactual, the initiative is designed to bridge traditional wealth management practices with digital asset sophistication to better serve Brazil's affluent investor segment.
Whitaker said:
"The phone is ringing off the hook at investment managers, but experts at traditional banks often don't know what to recommend or what path to take when it comes to digital assets. My mission is precisely to establish a more holistic view of investments, connecting this universe to sophisticated portfolios.”
CoinTelegraph Brasil Portal do Bitcoin Valor
Oranje to becomes Latam’s largest bitcoin treasury company
Oranje is preparing to launch on Brazil’s B3 exchange through a reverse IPO by acquiring Integraus, a pre-university prep school run by educational group Bioma Educação.
Upon completion, the company will become Latin America’s largest bitcoin treasury company, with over 1,800 bitcoins in reserves - nearly three times the 604.7 BTC held by Méliuz.
The company enters the market backed by an initial investment of approximately US$210 million (R$1.2 billion), with ambitions to provide investors leveraged crypto exposure, accumulate more Bitcoin, and target a 45% return (in BTC) in its first year of operation.
Oranje’s leadership features CEO Guilherme Gomes, formerly of Swan Bitcoin and Bridgewater Associates, and CFO Guilherme Affonso Ferreira Filho, along with financial advisory support from Itaú.
In an official statement, Bioma said that the completion of the deal was subject to several conditions, including registration of the new company:
"The closing is expected to occur soon, and then Bioma Education and Oranje S.A. – Education and Investment will continue their independent paths, with no joint business relationship between the two companies."
CoinTelegraph Brasil Portal do Bitcoin Livecoins
🗞Brazil Crypto News Rundown
📈 Markets
Thomaz Teixeira, CEO of the BRL1 consortium, warned that the value and stability of stablecoins could be undermined if too many issuers introduce their own versions without rigorous standards. He argued that fragmented liquidity and reduced trust could dilute the foundational benefits of stablecoins:
"There's room for differentiation, but if everyone has their own stablecoin, the network effect drops significantly…Having a stablecoin just to buy soccer tickets, for example, doesn't work." (Valor)
Méliuz is monetizing its bitcoin holdings by selling put option contracts on its reserves. This generates immediate premium income when options are sold - and, if exercised, acquires more BTC at pre-set prices for its reserve. (Portal do Bitcoin) (CriptoFacil)
A new survey shows Brazilians are deeply split on the role of the U.S. dollar. Nearly half reject automatic alignment with it and support a shift toward strengthening the BRICS bloc and finding alternative global reserve currencies. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Bitcoin has underperformed benchmark Brazilian investments such as the Ibovespa and Selic year-to-date. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Swiss institutional crypto infrastructure provider Taurus has opened a new office in Sao Paulo, appointing Bruno Reis as its CEO for Brazil. (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Valor) (Exame)
📲 Adoption
A city councilman in Salvador introduced a bill to allow taxes, fees, and payments for public services like transport and parking to be made in cryptocurrencies. The bill has already cleared two key committees.(Portal do Bitcoin) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Eletrobras has announced it will launch a bitcoin mining operation in Bahia this September, expanding beyond a small-scale pilot and investing nearly R$90 million in testing how to power energy-intensive data centers using renewable energy. (Exame)
Matheus Moura, CEO of Avenia, argued that recent security breaches in the Pix system underscore the need and opportunity for BRL-denominated stablecoins to emerge as viable payment alternatives. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
SmartPay launched a new anti-fraud monitoring project called SWAT to help authorities track suspicious transactions using crypto assets. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
BNDES and SENAI have committed R$56 million in funding for projects focused on artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
The São Paulo City Council has extended the special inquiry into Tools for Humanity, the company behind World (formerly Worldcoin) by 120 days. It is investigating concerns over biometric iris data collection and data privacy. (Livecoins)
Brazil currently leads Latin America in phishing attacks, with approximately 1.5 million phishing attempts targeting Brazilians every day (totaling 553 million attempts in the past year) resulting in crypto-market losses exceeding US$1 billion in 2024. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
🏛 Policy, Regulation and Enforcement
Brazil’s Central indicated that, in addition to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, the NFT market will also be brought under regulation with the goal of curbing money laundering. The comments came at the Finance of Tomorrow event in Rio. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
A Banco do Brasil employee in Rio Grande do Sul was arrested for defrauding elderly clients through fake loan schemes, diverting roughly R$1 million into Bitcoin purchases. (Portal do Bitcoin)
At the Finance of Tomorrow summit in Rio de Janeiro, regulators from Brazil and Argentina highlighted a growing regulatory impasse around stablecoins, pointing to issues such as transaction invisibility, unclear legal definitions, and inconsistent consumer protections. (BeinCrypto)
Federal Police launched Operation Snooker, freezing over R$40 million in crypto assets tied to a corruption, smuggling, and money laundering scheme involving fraudulent import declarations and involvement of public officials and businesses. (CriptoFacil)
A Receita Federal auditor is being investigated for alleged money laundering by moving approximately R$40 million through cryptocurrency transactions. (Livecoins)
Authorities in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo launched Operation Lance Final to dismantle a sophisticated “false auction” fraud network that used fake vehicle auction websites to trick victims into paying for nonexistent items. The perpetrators used assets to extract money from the operation. (Portal do Bitcoin) (Livecoins)
Civil Police in Mato Grosso launched Operation Rede de Mentiras, arresting the leader of the “Metaverso Soluções” Ponzi scheme, which promised investors 7% monthly returns and delayed payments citing losses in dollars and crypto. (Livecoins)
Brazil currently lacks specific digital inheritance laws for cryptocurrencies, creating a legal gap that risks digital assets being permanently lost if proper access is not granted to heirs. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
A former security officer for former Sao Paulo governors Tarcísio de Freitas and Rodrigo Garcia is at the center of a sophisticated money laundering and tax evasion scheme involving USDT. (Portal do Bitcoin)
Civil Police in the Federal District and several other states busted a major crypto investment fraud called EBDOX, orchestrated by a group led by Chinese nationals falsely portraying one of their members as an economics PhD from the University of Sao Paulo. The scheme amassed over R$1 billion before blocking withdrawls. (Livecoins)
BeeFund - a scheme that was widely accused of being a crypto investment fraud last year - has resurfaced, promoting new promises of “risk-free” crypto returns and urging users to rejoin via a Telegram group that now boasts over 20,000 members. (Portal do Bitcoin)