Brazil Crypto Report

It's been a rough few months for the crypto custody world. Ledger sparked a backlash with a controversial key recovery proposal, regulated custodian Prime Trust was put into receivership by the state of Nevada following allegations it misused customer funds, and Nasdaq backed away from plans to launch its own crypto custody service. Composecure CPO Adam Lowe joins the show to discuss the crypto custody challenges and potential solutions. Composecure is a leading manufacturer of high-end metal payment cards and authentication technologies. It is also the manufacturer of the Arculus hardware wallet, which features three-factor authentication and military-grade cryptography and focuses on delivering on safety, simplicity and security and and how this solution addresses the crypto industry's ongoing custody woes. Adam discusses Arculus's dual key solution for retail customers, as well as its B2B white label solution - which has partnerships already established in Asia and Latam. You can connect with Adam on Linkedin Connect with Brazil Crypto Report across the web: Twitter | Linkedin | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Podcasts / Substack

This week’s podcast is a recording of a panel I hosted with Thales Freitas of Bitso, AB InBev’s Daniel Tartaro and fintech expert Bruno Diniz at Digital Finance Brasil last month at the University of São Paulo. The panel explored how the respective worlds of crypto and fintech in Brazil are quickly converging, be it through Bitso’s efforts to bridge traditional finance with DeFi and CeFi, AB InBev’s loyalty program that uses tokenization and blockchain tech, and the importance of trust in established brands embracing these technologies even in a down market. Connect with Brazil Crypto Report across the web: Twitter | Linkedin | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Podcasts / Substack

Renan Kruger is a digital asset specialist at Santander Brasil, one of Brazil's largest banks and one that is actively involved in the country's budding digital asset space. This episode was recorded live at Digital Finance Brasil on June 22 at the University of São Paulo. We discuss: how Santander Brasil is studying the digital asset market and regulatory ecosystem in the country the bank's participation in the Brazilian Central Bank's Digital Real pilot program, particularly how it will test a blockchain-enabled delivery-versus-payment method for tokenized government bonds how the Digital Real ecosystem will change the relationship between banks and investors while making investments more transparent and accessible. a future in which every consumer will have two kinds of accounts in their bank app: a digital account for tokenized assets and a traditional account for transferring money. You can connect with Renan on Linkedin Connect with Brazil Crypto Report across the web: Twitter | Linkedin | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Podcasts / Substack

Rodrix Digital is one of Brazil’s original crypto influencers and content creators having first started his YouTube brand back in 2017. He now provides education and content on various platforms, including YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok, and has expanded his services to include consulting, marketing, and PR for businesses entering the Brazilian market. Today, his Bitcoin Block YouTube channel has published nearly 1500 videos and has more than 30,000 subscribers. In this episode we discuss: Rodrix’s numerous experiences in El Salvador and his new initiative helping people learn about the country’s new bitcoin law and how to move to the country Challenges of implementing Bitcoin in a cash economy and the positive aspects of the country’s bitcoin law. Rodrix also explains how the proposed volcano bond system how it will in theory enable from around the world to buy Treasuries from El Salvador using bitcoin The evolution of the cryptocurrency industry and the attention economy, as well as the potential for Web3 to revolutionize the content business model. The political situation in Brazil and its potential impact on the mainstreaming of crypto in the country. Rodrix argues that Brazil's political turmoil is expected to stagnate the economy in the next 6-12 months, potentially causing investors to pull out billions of dollars and throttling Brazil’s nascent digital assets economy

For this episode I am joined by Cryptum CEO André Salem to discuss illuminating new research exploring crypto adoption and sentiment in Brazil that him and his team have produced. Cryptum is a Brazil-based blockchain-as-a-service stack that provides tools for developers and companies looking to build blockchain and Web3 applications. André and his team recently commissioned an extensive survey of more than 1000 consumers and financial market professionals assessing their views toward cryptocurrency and the Web3 ecosystem in Brazil. We discuss the main findings from the survey, including: Most Brazilians have a positive view of what is happening on the Digital Real front given the Central Bank’s track record of delivering on previous financial innovation projects. There is still lacking a sound understanding of crypto, Web3 and how these concepts intertwine with Digital Real, though people see reduced bureaucracy and more efficient financial transactions as a potential benefit The risk of hacking remains a significant concern among concerns Most financial services companies don’t have a good understanding of what the Digital Real means for their business models, nor are they ready to adopt these technologies. Tokenization is seen as a bridge use case between Web3 and TradFi, as companies can become fintechs once they are able to tokenize their own assets. However, there is still a gap with regard to talent and skills in these areas.

Like it or not, the US is still the most important crypto market in the world, and if you’re a professional operating in this industry you need to be paying serious attention to what’s happening there. So to help you do that, Antonio and I invited two experts from the US to help us synthesize what’s going on with these SEC lawsuits and understand how observers in markets like Brazil should be interpreting these events. Lewis Cohen is an honorary Brazilian through marriage and is the co-founder of DLx Law. He’s long been one of the leading voices at the intersection of crypto and securities law in the US, and he recently co-authored the 180 page treatise The Ineluctable Modality of Securities Law: Why Fungible Crypto Assets Are not Securities. Follow him on Twitter at @NYcryptolawyer Nikhilesh De is a former colleague of mine at CoinDesk, where he overseas all of the outlet’s policy and regulatory coverage. He’s been covering US regulatory issues for almost five years now and has more institutional knowledge on these issues than probably any other journalist on the planet. Follow him on Twitter at @nikhileshde We run through the madness of the last couple of weeks in the US, including: June 2 - the McHenry-Thompson draft legislation was introduced. The bill would provide market structure reform specific to crypto assets - including defining clearer roles for the SEC and CFTC with respect to the asset class June 5 - SEC filed 13 charges against Binance (and CZ) accusing it of operating as an unregulated securities exchange, commingling customer funds, misrepresenting trading controls on Binance.US and a bunch of other bad stuff June 6 - SEC sues Coinbase accusing it of operating as an unregistered securities exchange in the US. The agency specifically named a plethora of crypto assets as securities in the lawsuit June 7 - Binance fights back claiming that SEC Chair Gary Gensler offered to be an advisor to Binance and CZ in 2019 June 12 - Rep. Warren Davidson introduces the “SEC Stablization Act” that seeks to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler June 13 - the infamous Bill Hinman emails related to his 2018 speech about how Ethereum was “sufficiently decentralized” are released as part of the SEC vs Ripple lawsuit June 13 - a federal judge rejects the SEC’s petition to freeze Binance.US’s assets We break down these events and assess just how bad the situation is, the road ahead for crypto in the US and the outlook for much-needed crypto legislation, and implications for other markets like Brazil. Connect with Brazil Crypto Report across the web: Twitter | Linkedin | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Podcasts / Substack

I had the chance to catch up with Guilherme Santana at Consensus 2023 in Austin. Guilherme is an engineer, biotech entrepreneur, crypto OG and the founder of Preservaland, which is a project that uses NFTs to incentivize landowners to protect their holdings from deforestation. We talk about how the Preservaland team identifies land in Brazil that is considered “preservable” and then pay the landowner to convert the land to a special legal status preventing it from being deforested or developed. The parcel of land is then represented by an NFT, as well as relevant metadata, which can be purchased by publicly-traded companies looking to keep carbon credits or biodiversity credits on their balance sheet. In addition, we discuss: pain points inherent in carbon credit issuance and accounting, and how blockchain can help address these problems why high quality and verifiable carbon assets are difficult to come by how a publicly-traded bank in Brazil now holds a Preservaland NFT on its balance sheet why US companies will need to look to solutions such as Preservaland when the SEC rules requiring carbon impact reporting go live in 2024 how Preservaland created a compliance platform to verify the land and quantify environmental impact pursuant to Brazilian law Connect with Brazil Crypto Report across the web: Twitter | Linkedin | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Podcasts / Substack

Nesse podcast gravado live no Criptorama Brasilia dia 7 de Junho, eu converso com Juliana Walenkamp do BitGo sobre a importância do custôdia na questão do regulaçåo do criptomoedas Juliana Walenkamp é chefe de vendas institucionais da Latam na BitGo no Brasil e passou um tempo representando outros nomes familiares da Web3 como Ripple, Gemini e Transfero na região. Nesta conversa, mergulhamos na evolução da BitGo como empresa desde a primeira oferta de produtos básicos multi-sig em 2013 para se tornar um custodiante qualificado de pleno direito que oferece uma infinidade de outros produtos, como liquidez, staking e acesso a portais financeiros descentralizados por meio de Metamask. Também falamos sobre: - os desafios que empresas internacionais como a BitGo enfrentam ao entrar no Brasil - por que a BitGo solicitará uma licença de provedor de serviços de ativos virtuais no Brasil - a importância de custodiar criptoativos com um custodiante regulamentado ou “qualificado” com responsabilidade fiduciária - como o interesse institucional em produtos criptográficos está crescendo no Brasil - a importância das práticas de segregação de ativos pós-FTX - O papel da BitGo no mercado latino-americano em relação a concorrentes como Fireblocks, Coinbase, Gemini, etc. Você pode se conectar com Juliana no Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliana-walenkamp/

Jonathan Levin is Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Chainalysis, a leading blockchain data and analytics company valued at US$8.6 billion in its most recent funding round. I had the chance to sit down with Jonathan this week at the Criptorama conference in Brasilia, hosted by ABCripto and Fenasbac. We met up in the lobby of the famous Royal Tulip Hotel to chat about how blockchain data services like Chainalysis can bring trust to Brazil’s emerging digital asset ecosystem. In this interview we discuss: Takeaways from Jonathan’s recent visit to Brazil, in which he met with key industry and public sector stakeholders in São Paulo and Brasília Chainalysis’s global presence and expansion into Latin American markets The role that blockchain analytics firms play in creating a healthy regulatory and supervisory framework for Brazil’s cryptoeconomy, particularly once the Digital Real platform is live How crypto adoption in Brazil differs from other regions of the world, namely the high demand for USD-pegged stablecoins Best practices, common mistakes and lessons learned that Jonathan has gleaned from watching other governments wrestle with crypto regulation and supervision Please follow and subscribe to ⁠Brazil Crypto Report⁠ on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews exploring the Brazil crypto ecosystem. ⁠

For this episode I'm joined by Alex Nascimento, who is a professor at UCLA in the US and a partner at 7 Visions Digital, a São Paulo-based venture fund focused on tokenizing Real World Assets such as debt, precatories and environmental assets. He’s also the author of The STO Financial Revolution: How Security Tokens Change Businesses Forever. I was also joined by Antonio Neto as a guest co-host. You may recall was my first-ever interviewee for this show last year when he was the head of Brazil and Latam at FTX. In this episode, Alex discusses his experiences teaching crypto and blockchain at the university level and how demand for these courses have ebbed and flowed with the crypto markets. We also discuss: - the challenges inherent in sourcing qualified talent in the blockchain industry - the value proposition of security tokens and how these assets fit into crypto cycles dating back to 2017 - how Brazil’s financial regulators have been forward thinking on questions of tokens - the problem of fragmentation in securities regulation regimes worldwide - the investment proposition of regulated real world asset tokens vis-a-vis more volatile crypto-native assets - the challenges inherent to fully registering the full lifecycle of an RWA token on chain - the lack of quality yield-generating products currently available to the Brazilian populationhow asset tokenization can offer high-yield investment opportunities to retail investors that would be otherwise unavailable - the role and effectiveness of regulatory sandboxes such as the one operated by Brazil’s CVM - how institutional finance in Brazil can participate in decentralized finance using zero knowledge proofs and other tools - how 7 Visions Digital is exploring novel tokenization products like carbon credits, precatories and receivables I really enjoyed this conversation with Alex and Antonio and I hope you do as well. Please follow and subscribe to ⁠Brazil Crypto Report⁠ on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem. https://brazilcrypto.substack.com/ Follow Alex on Linkedin