🇧🇷BCR #51: SBF Eyes Brazil
🇧🇷BCR #51: SBF Eyes Brazil
Also: "Bitcoin King" lambo auctioned for R$845k, Mercado Bitcoin CEO turns up heat on foreign exchanges; Binance up its advocacy game
Fala pessoal!
Greetings and welcome to 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report for the week of July 18-22. I hope everyone had a great weekend. I spent some time at the local airshow with my son checking out World War II era fighter planes. It was a nice change of pace from languishing over crypto prices 😂..
Thanks as always for reading and I hope you enjoy this week’s edition
-AWS
🗺SBF Looks to Brazil
When SBF speaks, the world listens. 30 year-old crypto billionaire and industry rescuer-in-chief Sam Bankman-Fried now has his eye on expanding FTX in Brazil and Latam, he revealed in a conversation with Bloomberg’s Matt Levine.
While he emphasized that there isn’t a specific acquisition or proposal in the works, he said that he is looking at how token offerings could be conducted in markets like Brazil and Mexico.
“I don’t believe there is anything concrete at the moment, we would love to and we are having talks with possible partners in Latin America.”
He also emphasized that he believes crypto usage in Latam will increase particularly around the remittance use case and that cryptos, particularly stablecoins pegged to national currencies, will eventually be used for payments.
🔥Mercado Bitcoin CEO Turns Up Heat on Foreign Exchanges
Anyone who follows Reinaldo Rabelo’s Linkedin feed knows he isn’t shy in his criticism of Binance, but this week he took aim at the broader range of foreign competitors. In an interview with Neofeed, he accused Crypto.com, Coinbase, FTX, Gemini and Paxos of operating in the same extra-legal grey area in Brazil in the same manner as Binance.
“[L]ike Binance, there are Crypto.com, Coinbase, FTX, Gemini, Paxos. All acting in the same way…All of them exploit the fragility of the inspection apparatus of our State. Many of them operate in other markets and respect them. How does FTX operate in the United States? How does Binance operate in the United States? How does Coinbase operate in the United States? It's very different from how they work here….With the model they use here, FTX, Binance and Coinbase were kicked out of other countries.”
In response to a question if Binance should be expelled from Brazil, he responded:
“In this model, yes. We don't need explorers in our economy, we need investors in our economy. We need to attract good money, not exploitation money.”
Thiago Cesar, CEO of Transfero and frequent Rabelo critic on Linkedin, posted the following not inaccurate response:
The crypto-regulation debate in Brazil boils down to three sides: a pathetic anti-competitive lobby promoted by local exchanges (who are having their asses kicked by Binance, FTX, Crypto.com, Bybit, etc), legacy banks who always frowned upon crypto but are now trying to portrait themselves as "crypto is cool as long as we control it" and the rest of the market who couldn't care less about fake narratives and pragmatically chooses the best service providers.
Don't get fooled by false narratives from people who never followed the "ethos" of crypto.
💪Binance Boosts its Advocacy Game
Binance took a big step to bolster its presence and advocacy efforts in Brazil by joining the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Committee of the Brazilian Chamber of Digital Economy as a founding member. The organization was created in 2001 and counts major tech players like Facebook, TikTok, Nubank, Visa and Uber among its members. Daniel Mangabeira, Binance’s head of Institutional Relations and primary Brazil spokesperson, will serve as the crypto committee’s coordinator. He commented:
“The Committee, a pioneer in the sector, will allow the positioning of agents in the segment and the construction of proposals for the development and expansion of this industry. The discussion involves the regulatory debate, which is of paramount importance, as well as the construction of the digital community, creating conditions that allow the use of crypto assets in the most beneficial and inclusive way for users, investors and society as a whole.”
The move marks Binance’s first move to join a multilateral advocacy or lobbying trade group in Brazil
⭐️I highly recommend this “State of Bankless Brasil” write up in the BanklessDAO newsletter (in English). In just a year, Bankless Brasil has built a community of 1200 members on Discord and 2,000 newsletter subscribers, and they’re producing and translating a lot of great Portuguese language crypto content.
🎙Be sure to check out the latest episodes of the 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report podcast. Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Brazilian UFC fighters Matheus Nicolau and Luana Pinheiro about their decision to accept part of their salary in bitcoin.
I also sat down with Sabrina Tachdjian, head of payments and fintech at HBAR Foundation to discuss the HBAR grants program, what types of projects in Latam they are looking to seed, and what a successful application looks like.
🤩 We’ll also be launching our invitation-only BCR Institutional platform later this month. This product will focus on providing bitcoin and crypto education to professional investors in Brazil. It will consist of investor-focused content (in Portuguese), exclusive monthly roundtables and discussion groups. Please keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation. If you don’t get an invitation but feel you should (many of you use anonymous email addresses🕵️♀️) feel free to ping me at aaron@brazilcrypto.report.
🙏 Thanks to our partners at HBAR Foundation for supporting 🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report! If you're a Latam entrepreneur or developer with an up-and-coming project or idea and need some support, take a look at the HBAR grant program. They're seeding projects focused on DeFi, fintech, NFTs, sustainability and so much more. They also offer a plethora of other resources to help builders bootstrap. Do yourself a favor and check them out! 👊
🗞Brazil Crypto News Rundown
📈 Markets
BitPreço acquired fellow exchange Biscoint with an eye for consolidating the Brazilian exchange space and creating a “cryptobank” that offers both crypto payments and investing services aimed at end customers.
BitPreço also sees the move as a way to expand its B2B “crypto-as-a-service” offerings
The transaction amount and terms of the deal were not disclosed
Biscoint co-founders Jonathas Carrijo and Thiago Borges will join the new company’s board of directors.
Popular investment influencer Primo Rico was an investor in Biscoint and will now be a partner in BitPreço
BitPreço CEO Ney Pimenta was also an angel investor in Biscoint, according to his Linkedin profile. Pimenta commented:
“We expect to triple in size over the next three years, supported by organic growth, potential new acquisitions and new products. Today, 90% of users are B2C, but we are also expanding our operations in B2B through new products.” (Valor)
Portal do Bitcoin reports that Binance had a secretive relationship with another payment provider, SafetyPay, to give customers additional options for withdrawing and depositing reais in the event that its relationship with Latam Gateway is suspended. The publication claims that Binance was using this processor, which has links to four large Brazilian banks, in parallel with Latam Gateway and that the service was discontinued on July 21 after questions were raised about the system.
XP Investimentos opened preregistration for its Xtage product, which will offer crypto buying and selling services to customers. (Portal do Bitcoin)
Bankly, the payment platform operated by Acesso Bank - owned by Méliuz, saw a drop of R$1bn in total payment volume in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter. Much of the drop was attributed to Binance’s breakup with Capitual, which Acesso provided services to. (Portal do Bitcoin)
RIB, a utility token issued by real estate firm Ribus, will be listed on FlowBTC. RIB will allow service providers involved in a property’s construction to receive a share of the profit of individual unit sales. COO Daniel Carius says that there are more than 50 properties on his platform participating in the process. (Valor)
Anbima, a trade group representing Brazilian capital markets players, is looking to create rules and best practices for funds investing in crypto. (BlockNews)
Pravaler, an education platform, raised R$60m (US$10.6m) in a security token offering registered on the Vórtx QR Tokenizadora blockchain, which is part of the CVM’s regulatory sandbox. 60,000 tokens priced at R$1,000 each were sold to accredited investors. The event marks the third such security token issuance by Vórtx QR this year. (Valor Investe) (InfoMoney) (Exame)
Brazilian technical analysis pioneer Fausto Botelho says that the price of bitcoin may have hit bottom, though the stock market crash “hasn’t even started yet”. (InfoMoney)
Huobi Global announced a partnership with Capitual to create individualized accounts for its Brazilian users and bolster its KYC compliance measures. This is the same problem that led to Binance terminating its relationship with Capitual last month. Huobi CFO Lily Zhang commented:
“This KYC policy update is part of our ongoing efforts to manage security risks and incidents. Compliance and security of user assets have always been our top priorities, which is why we maintain a record of zero security incidents in the nearly nine years since our launch. We are determined to work closely with Capitual to provide safer, more professional and more compliant services to our users in Brazil.” (Livecoins) (Portal do Bitcoin)
Fintech 99Pay is adding Ethereum, Solana, Decentraland and USDC trading to its platform, with the goal of enabling participation by small investors. It currently has 7 million active users. César Trevisan of 99Pay commented:
“Crypto transactions on 99Pay aim to present this universe with the possibility of investing in small amounts. We want to encourage the user, breaking barriers with simple and intuitive mechanisms like 99Pay.” (CoinTelegraph Brasil) (Livecoins) (Portal do Bitcoin)
Exchange Bexplus, which operates in Brazil, US, Singapore and elsewhere, announced that it is closing its doors and gave clients 24 hours withdraw their funds. (Livecoins)
📱Adoption
Brazilian UFC fighter Luana Pinheiro is receiving a portion of her salary in bitcoin via a partnership with Bitwage. Her boyfriend and fellow UFC fighter Matheus Nicolau is also getting paid in bitcoin via a similar arrangement. (Valor)
Glauber Contessoto, an influencer who famously became a millionaire investing in Dogecoin, told his followers on social media that he bought a Tesla car for $90,000. (Portal do Bitcoin)
Nubank has enabled crypto trading for all customers, with a minimum purchase of R$1. (CoinTimes)
Brazilian shop owners have accessed R$25m (US$4.6m) in DeFi loans in the last month through a partnership with CloudWalk, a payments unicorn that owns InfinitePay. CloudWalk CEO and founder Luis Silva commented:
“Behind it, the Web 3 wallet that the merchant uses gets the stablecoin [paired in real] BRLC from the pool [smart contract that stores cryptos] at an interest rate based on a certain amount of products he sells…He uses DeFi without knowing it.” (InfoMoney)
5% of remote workers in Latin America are being paid in crypto, according to 100,000 contracts analyzed by Deel, a payroll solutions company. (Valor) (Bloomberg Linea)
Crypto payments platform CoinsPaid plans to open an office in Brazil in the coming months as part of a Latam expansion strategy. (BlockNews)
The number of crypto ATM users in Brazil is up 80% in 2022 despite the market downturn, according to a survey by ATM operator Coin Cloud, which has 24 machines installed in various stores in the country. (CriptoFacil)
Popular Brazilian TV broadcaster Ana Maria Braga featured a 16 minute segment on the technical fundamentals and use cases of cryptocurrencies on her popular Globo morning show with Big Brother Brasil personality Gil do (Livecoins) (Portal do Bitcoin)
Accenture says in a new report that Brazil is on the way to becoming a decentralized finance powerhouse due to the country’s embrace of other disruptive financial technologies like Pix, Open Finance and the Digital Real. The report notes that the volume of transactions involving stablecoins in Brazil grew 300% in 2021 and it cites a Crypto.com survey that showing 59% of Brazilians intend to invest in crypto for the first time in 2022.
The report also praised the Marco Crypto, which would create a regulatory framework, currently being considered by Congress:
“In fact, the regulatory framework will be a watershed in this market, because it will allow the entry of institutional participants, leveraging the values moved and allowing even more innovation, especially in sectors with greater lack of finance”.
26 $MENGO fan token holders will be able to participate in an exhibition match at Estádio da Gávea with several former Flamengo stars. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilian startup Green Mining has collected 15,000 kilos of recycled plastic and transformed them into NFTs that give access to a hotel in Paris. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Nodle Network was announced as the premier sponsor of Blockchain Rio. (BeinCrypto)
Digital investment influencers reach almost 100 million people in Brazil, and 43% of Brazilians have directly purchased something recommended by an influencer, according to a new report from Finfluence. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilian startup KATE has secured an investment from the investment arm of Grupo Leonora. KATE links real documents and the digital world through the creation of security tokens and will use the funds to act as a blockchain stock exchange to provide access to capital markets for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Brazilian bitcoiner Ricardo Reis demonstrated how a full bitcoin node can be run using a Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone. (Portal do Bitcoin)
🎮 NFTs, Gaming and Metaverse
A famous painting depicting Brazilian footballer Neymar as a mix between Batman and the Joker has been minted as an NFT. (BeinCrypto)
The city of Rio de Janeiro will be reproduced in the Upland metaverse starting July 26. Users will be able to own virtual land, build real estate and participate in events in the digital version of the city. It will also host a digital version of the Mangueira samba school. (Exame)
🏛 Public Policy, Regulation and Enforcement
A Lamborghini seized from “Bitcoin King” Cláudio José de Oliveira was auctioned off for R$845,000 (US$155k). Several other confiscated items, including cars and luxury handbags are now up for auction on the Krononberg Auctions website. (Valor Investe) (Portal do Bitcoin
Incoming CVM president João Pedro Nascimento said he believes his agency should be the regulator overseeing fintech, edutech and proptech firms in his inauguration speech. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Presidential candidate Ciro Gomes ruled out the possibility of bitcoin being adopted as legal tender in Brazil if he is elected. He stated, at an event hosted by FIESP:
“I'm very conservative in terms of finances…speaking of bitcoins: it is a currency that does not have an authority that gives it forced tender or that gives it backing as a store of value. A beautiful day can turn into a pyramid.” (Portal do Bitcoin)
The Bitcoin Law working stuck in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies is a “priority” for Chamber president Arthur Lira and his deputy Ricardo Barros and it must be voted on “urgently”, possibly before the end of August, CoinTelegraph Brasil reports.
YouTuber Lucas Lira had has channel hacked by scammers promoting a cryptocurrency scam. (Portal do Bitcoin)
A new bill introduced in the Senate would allow for the use of cryptocurrencies in real estate transactions. The legislation was introduced by Senator Rogério Carvalho. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
Fans of “Pharaoh of Bitcoins” Glaidson Acácio dos Santos invaded a digital hearing petitioning for habeas corpus. The Zoom chat room was filled with 500 simultaneous messages demanding Glaidson be freed, resulting in a postponement of the hearing. (Livecoins)
Mirelis Zerpa, Glaidson’s wife, emphasized in a YouTube video that she is not responsible for client losses and that no one can rightfully bring charges against her:
“The court cannot accuse me because I did not have the management of the company, there is no evidence of that. I got in touch with other people in the company, so that I had the list of customers and the amount that should be returned daily to them.” (Portal do Bitcoin)