Brazil: Bitcoin law passed quietly

Brazil’s President Jair Messias Bolsonaro has remained silent on the bitcoin law (number 4.401/2021) passed by Congress fifteen days ago, thereby automatically ensuring approval.

After publication in the Official Journal, the binding legal norm will come into force in the second half of 2023. It remains to be seen which cryptocurrency regulator will be in charge of the largest country in South America.

Analysts believe that this task will fall to the central bank, although there could be a legal disagreement in this case. Since the “Banco Central do Brasil” currently has a law regulating payment companies in place, this could contradict the Bitcoin law. There would be double regulation of cryptocurrency brokers or exchanges, insiders report.

Brazil is the Latin American country with the highest cryptocurrency retail activity. Unlike other countries with inflationary economic problems, such as Venezuela or Argentina, the use of Bitcoin as a speculative investment is dominant in Brazil.

Brazil is therefore a country where mostly ordinary citizens are interested in buying cryptoassets.

There are several ways to buy and sell Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in Brazil: decentralized alternatives, centralized exchanges, peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms, digital asset brokers and ATMs.

Some of these options hold user funds; some require little or much personal information; others offer cheaper fees or have higher liquidity and trading volume than others.

With information from latinapress