Welcome to the 🇧🇷 Brazil Crypto Report

The English speaker's guide to Latin America's largest crypto ecosystem

Welcome to the Brazil Crypto Report. The objective of this publication is to give the English speaking world a quick and easy way to stay on top of crypto developments in Brazil, which we argue is the probably most overlooked market in the world.

Why spin this up? Here are three reasons, which we’ll dive into below:

1. Brazil will be one of the most important growth markets for the crypto industry over the next 2-3 years

2. Despite its potential, Brazil doesn’t receive the attention it merits from the crypto industry (and other industries, for that matter)

3. Brazil’s culture, politics and economics are quite complex and therefore require a degree of translation and interpretation

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Brazil will be one of the most important growth markets for the crypto industry over the next 2-3 years

Simply put, it’s difficult to envision a scenario in which Brazil is NOT a key market for crypto adoption over the coming decade. It has a population 214 million, a $1.8 trillion economy and a ridiculous abundance of natural resources that will be a continued source of wealth and income in the coming years.

For context, the 18 Spanish-speaking Latin America countries are home to a combined population of 413 million and generate a GDP of $3.3 trillion. Those numbers drop to 286 million and $2.2 trillion, respectively, if Mexico (which some consider to be more a part of North America) is removed from the calculation.

Furthermore, its citizens are as digitally-savyy as anyone and hungry for innovation in financial services. Seemingly all personal and business communication is now conducted over WhatsApp. Nubank, which launched in 2013 and now has 40 million customers, is now largest digital bank in the world. Pix, an instantaneous payment system developed by the Banco Central, has seen widespread usage after being launched in late 2020.

Seeing this opportunity, there has been a massive push into Brazil from Latin America’s major crypto exchanges. Binance, Bitso and Ripio have expanded their respective footprints in the country so far this year. Not to be outdone, Mercado Bitcoin - Brazil’s largest exchange - announced a $200 million funding round this past week.

Despite its potential, Brazil doesn’t receive the attention it merits from the crypto industry (and other industries, for that matter)

While comparable “emerging” or “BRIC” economies like China, India and Russia are frequently covered by crypto media and generally accepted as critical markets for adoption, Brazil hasn’t received the same level of attention. Even in Latin America, much smaller countries like Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico (and now El Salvador) receive far more crypto coverage in English language media.

There are some valid reasons for this, which we’ll discuss. However, the point is that there is a disproportionately small amount of attention being paid to this market given its potential.

Brazil’s culture, politics and economics are quite complex and therefore require a degree of translation and interpretation

The decades-old adage “Brazil is not for beginners” has hung around for a reason. It’s a complex society that remains largely inward-focused and isolated by global standards, and for this reason it can be easy to overlook. Indeed, observers will routinely lump it in with the Spanish-speaking Latin America, even though it has far less in common with these neighbors than is presumed.

The country has also suffered from a series of painful economic and political crises over the last decade, meaning that the majority of English language media coverage and narratives emanating from the country haven’t been exactly flattering.

Now, I’m hardly a Brazil expert. But I do have family ties there, have spent a lot of time there and even did my Master’s thesis on the country’s economy a few years back. I speak and read Brazilian Portuguese. I also heartily enjoy a Caipirinha from time to time. So I feel I’m in a position to speak with a reasonable degree of authority on these topics.

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What Should I Expect From This Newsletter?

To start, I’ll be sending out a weekly recap of the major crypto news and meta-themes coming out of Brazil. These will be draw from both English and Portuguese-language sources, and will seek to connect the dots for the English language reader.

I will touch on Brazilian political and macro-economic news to the extent they pertain to crypto. But like I mentioned above, these topics can be really really complicated and outside the scope of what I’m trying to do here.

Ideally, this newsletter will evolve into whatever format readers find to be most useful. So that could be news recaps, interviews, analyses, contributed op-eds, podcasts, etc.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to hearing your feedback on how this can be improved!

Obrigado,

Aaron