Brazil Orders 2 US Firms to Shut Pro-Flávio Crypto Site
BRAZIL · ELECTIONS
Runoff · Sunday, 25 October
Flávio Bolsonaro vs Lula: what happens next
First-round results, how the runoff works, the key dates and who backs whom, in one guide.
Key Facts
- —The country Brazil, Latin America’s largest country and economy, picks its next president in a runoff on Sunday 25 October between Flávio Bolsonaro and President Lula.
- —What happened On Friday 9 October, electoral judge Estela Aranha ordered a crypto site that rewarded posts backing Flávio Bolsonaro taken offline.
- —The US link The order tells two US companies, Cloudflare of San Francisco and Spaceship of Phoenix, Arizona, to suspend the site’s web address.
- —The scheme The Brasil 22 Token project promised digital tokens to people who posted support for 22, the ballot number of Flávio’s Liberal Party.
- —The denial Flávio’s campaign says it does not know who created the site and has filed its own complaint against it.
- —Prediction markets Polymarket gives Flávio Bolsonaro an 88.6% chance of winning the 25 October runoff (10 October, 1:40 a.m. ET). Polymarket puts Flávio Bolsonaro’s chance of winning at 89% and Kalshi at 88% (Lula: 12% and 12%), as of 10 October, 2:20 am ET; prices are bets, not polls.
Brazil’s top electoral court has ordered a crypto site that rewarded online posts backing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro taken offline. Judge Estela Aranha issued the injunction on Friday 9 October, 16 days before the 25 October runoff.
Her order tells two US companies, Cloudflare and Spaceship, to suspend the site’s web address. X and Facebook must hand over data on who runs the accounts, while Flávio’s campaign denies any link to the project.
How the Brasil 22 Token Worked
The project, called Brasil 22 Token, offered a digital token known as B22 to people who posted support for number 22 on social media. Number 22 is the ballot number of the Liberal Party (PL), Flávio’s conservative party.
Users posted support for number 22, then sent the post’s link and a digital wallet address to claim tokens, according to Lula’s coalition. Folha de S.Paulo, a São Paulo daily, revealed the scheme in the days after the 4 October first round.
The crypto site said its token handouts did not depend on how anyone voted. It also said the project was not official and had no link to any politician, party or campaign, Agência Brasil reports.
According to Congresso em Foco, a Brasília political news site, the first 1,000 posters on X, Instagram or TikTok were promised 30,000 tokens each.
The scheme was promoted by Hyperkids, a dance group of children and teenagers from Uganda with almost 13 million followers online. In a video, the children promoted a new token to help Brazil and named Flávio, Pablo Marçal and congressman Nikolas Ferreira.
Flávio’s own lawyers say blockchain records show 120 million B22 tokens went to a profile called HypersKids Africa. Metrópoles, a Brasília news site, reports that the profile later deleted the videos and apologised.
What the Judge Ordered
Aranha, a lawyer, is one of the seven full members of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which runs Brazil’s elections. She found that the crypto site offered an economic advantage during the election, Agência Brasil, the state news agency, reports.
According to Metrópoles, she saw signs that the project went beyond the spontaneous expression of political support. Gazeta do Povo, a Curitiba newspaper, says she saw a structured system of rewards that could upset equality between the candidates.
The order tells Spaceship, a domain registrar in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cloudflare, a San Francisco network company, to suspend the brasil22token.com domain. The site’s operators must stop offering, promising or handing out B22 tokens.
X must remove three posts within three hours, and X and Facebook must preserve records and identify the account holders under seal. The Brazilian arm of Binance, the crypto exchange, has 48 hours to give details of a linked account.
Brazil’s Election Law bans paid election advertising online, except clearly labelled boosted posts bought by parties, coalitions or candidates. Breaking it carries fines of R$5,000 (about US$1,000) to R$30,000 (about US$6,000), or twice the sum spent if that is higher.
A candidate who benefits is fined only if prior knowledge is proven. Those conversions use about 5.01 reais to the US dollar on 10 October 2026.
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| AAVE | 89.06 | +0.93% | -72.33% | 88.24 | 90.20 | 88.19 | 129,099,704 |
Who Is Who in the Case
Flávio Bolsonaro is a senator for Rio de Janeiro and a son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. He is the presidential candidate of the PL, the conservative party his father joined in 2021.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is Brazil’s left-wing president, from the Workers’ Party (PT), and is seeking a fourth term. His coalition, Brasil Pronto Pra Mais, took the case to the electoral court on Thursday 8 October.
Its complaint names four people, including Flávio and Pablo Marçal, a businessman and influencer who recently joined Flávio’s campaign. The coalition also asked the PGE, the federal prosecutors’ office for elections, to identify those responsible.
Flávio’s campaign says it does not know who created the crypto site and will act on electoral, civil and criminal grounds. On Friday it filed its own complaint over the misuse of his name, image and ballot number.
Aranha’s two injunctions now go to the full court for review. Electoral prosecutors will also give their opinion.
What It Means for You
The case shows Brazil’s election court turning to American tech firms to enforce its rules. A domain registrar in Arizona and a network company in San Francisco are the ones told to cut off the site’s address.
For crypto users, the message is direct: Brazilian judges can treat tokens handed out for campaign posts as banned paid advertising. Platforms such as X and Facebook must also hand over data on who runs the accounts.
Lula’s coalition has also asked Brazil’s Federal Police to open an inquiry and to seek legal cooperation from the United States, Congresso em Foco reports. The same request asks for digital records to be preserved.
Brazilians in the United States vote in the same runoff on 25 October, and this voting-day guide explains how it works. The injunction does not find that Flávio created or paid for the project.
It is a provisional measure, and each person’s responsibility will be examined later in the case.
What Prediction Markets Say
On Polymarket, an online prediction market, bettors give Flávio Bolsonaro an 88.6% chance of winning the runoff (10 October, 1:40 a.m. ET). Lula stands at 11.5%, and Flávio’s price rose 2.9 points over the previous 24 hours.
The “Brazil Presidential Election” market has drawn about US$179.6 million in total bets. These are bets, not polls, and they can swing quickly on court news.
Prediction markets · who wins the runoff
Implied chance of winning Brazil’s presidency on 25 October, from traders’ prices.
Polymarket
Flávio Bolsonaro 88.6% · Lula 11.5% (US$180 million traded)
Kalshi (regulated in the US by the CFTC)
Flávio Bolsonaro 88% · Lula 12%
As of 10 October, 2:20 am ET (07:20 Lisbon), updated every 20 minutes. Prices are bets, not polls, and can move fast.
Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.
What Is Not Known
Nobody has admitted to building or funding the Brasil 22 Token crypto site, and the court has not yet ruled on who is responsible. How much money the token raised, and how many people received it, has not been officially confirmed.
The site was still online early on Saturday 10 October, and it is not known when Cloudflare, Spaceship, X and Binance will comply. No date has been set for the full court’s ruling, and no fine has been reported.
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Brasil 22 Token?
It is a crypto project that promised B22 tokens to people who posted support for 22, the ballot number of Flávio Bolsonaro’s party. Brazil’s electoral court ordered its crypto site suspended on 9 October.
Did Flávio Bolsonaro run the crypto site?
His campaign says it does not know who created it, denies any link to its creators and says it hired no profiles to promote him. The judge’s order is provisional and does not assign blame to any individual.
Why are US companies involved?
The judge ordered Spaceship, a domain registrar in Phoenix, Arizona, and Cloudflare, a San Francisco network company, to suspend the site’s address. She also asked X and Facebook for data on the people behind the posts.
When is Brazil’s presidential runoff?
It is on Sunday 25 October, between Flávio Bolsonaro and President Lula. On Polymarket, bettors gave Flávio an 88.6% chance of winning early on 10 October.
Sources: Presidency of Brazil, Law 9,504 (Election Law), Article 57-C, 30 September 1997; Agência Brasil, 9 October 2026; Agência Brasil, 8 October 2026; Metrópoles, 9 October 2026; Congresso em Foco, 9 October 2026; Gazeta do Povo, 9 October 2026; Spaceship, legal page, 10 October 2026; Cloudflare, company overview, 10 October 2026.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief