Brazil Crypto Report

For this most recent podcast I had the chance to sit down with Jorge Souto and Paulo Boghosian who run the TC Cripto program at Traders Club. Traders Club is a premium community that provides education, tools and research for primarily sophisticated traders across equities, derivatives and commodities. Paulo and Jorge are both career TradFi professionals who pivoted into crypto in the mid-2010s. In early 2021 they spun up TC Cripto, which is a division of Traders Club focused specifically on digital assets. In this episode we discuss: The “arranged marriage” that brought Jorge and Paulo together to form TC Cripto The makeup of retail versus professional traders in Brazil across different asset classes Why the institutional investor community in Brazil has been slow to embrace crypto and digital assets How membership in TC Cripto has continued to expand despite the bear market The importance of macro conditions and indicators on crypto markets, particularly movements in the US, Europe, Japan and China Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

Andre Portilho is head of digital assets at BTG Pactual, which is one of the largest banks in Brazil and the largest investment bank in Latin America. He previously ran the options desk at BTG when bitcoin came onto his radar in 2017. Since then, BTG has been a leader among financial institutions globally in embracing and utilizing blockchain technology as well as offering crypto products to its clients. Last year, BTG launched its Mynt crypto platform, which offers more than 20 cryptocurrencies to customers through its application. In April 2023, BTG launched its own dollar-backed BTG Dol stablecoin, becoming what appears to be the first financial institution in the world to issue a stablecoin intended for use by retail investors. In this episode we discuss: How the BTG Dol idea originated earlier this year The current demand for US dollar exposure among Brazilian investors and BTG customers BTG’s experience issuing a real estate-backed security token in 2018 How recent banking and stablecoin crises impacted the BTG Dol’s design The value proposition of a stablecoin issued by heavily regulated TradFi institution such as BTG Pactual The uptake of the Mynt platform among retail investors since late 2022 Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.   You can follow Andre on Linkedin and Twitter

Leo Schwartz is a crypto reporter at Fortune covering focusing on policy and regulation. Leo has prior experience covering technology in Spanish-speaking Latin America, but he recently made his first trip to Brazil to host several crypto panels at Web Summit Rio and meet several of the key players from the local industry. In this episode, we talk about how the conference opened his eyes to Brazil's bustling crypto ecosystem, how Brazil's emerging crypto regulatory framework stacks vis-a-vis others around the world and how Brazilian crown jewel companies like Hashdex and Parfin can compete in the global marketplace. Leo also authored a great column post-event called "Brazil's unlikely bid to become a global crypto hub" which generated a lot of interest. You can follow Leo on Linkedin, Twitter and through his Fortune author page Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

Hashdex has established itself as a global pioneer in crypto asset management since being founded in 2018. It is also one of the crown jewels of Brazil’s crypto ecosystem, with more than US$400 million in AUM. But the firm’s vision expands far beyond just Brazil and Latam. For this latest podcast I spoke with Bruno Ramos de Sousa, Partner and Head of US and Europe, about Hashdex’s rise to prominence in Brazil and its growth efforts worldwide. We discuss how Hashdex blazed a trail for bringing exchange-traded crypto products to market in Brazil and abroad, its strategy for penetrating the US and European markets, the value proposition of exchange-traded crypto products and the outlook for growth as institutional adoption increases. Bruno has been with Hashdex since its beginning and has played an instrumental role in the company’s formation and expansion, so it was great getting his inside perspective. Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

News broke last week that the CVM, the Brazilian SEC, referred Binance to federal prosecutors for allegedly offering crypto derivatives products to Brazilian customers in defiance of a cease and desist order. Further reporting this week has revealed that the CVM’s inquiry began in June 2022 after a Binance customer service representative told a Portal do Bitcoin reporter, posing as a trader, that he could access the derivatives products by simply changing the language on the Binance interface from Brazilian Portuguese to Portuguese from Portugal. In December 2022, the CVM referred the matter to federal prosecutors in São Paulo for further investigation asserting that there appears to be evidence of criminal activity. I asked Cláudio Rabin, editor-in chief of Portal do Bitcoin, to come on and discuss what his team has learned about these investigations over the last week. Cláudio also discusses his team's extensive reporting into Binance's opaque operating structure in Brazil, which is centered around a shell entity called B Fintech. Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.   In today’s episode I talk with Jorge Borges who heads up Fireblocks’ sales operations for Brazil and Latin America. We talk about Jorge’s background in finance and tech before jumping into crypto and digital assets. Fireblocks provides blockchain infrastructure services to digital native and traditional finance customers - ranging from small Web3 gaming startups to the world’s largest custodians and banks like Bank of New York Mellon. In this episode we discuss: Fireblocks’ ethos as a cybersecurity provider that offers a tech stack that enable clients to build their own solutions How Fireblocks differs from other institutional infrastructure firms operating in the space Jorge’s experience one year into the job How Brazil’s TradFi banking sector is approach the Digital Real and asset tokenization, and the role Fireblocks plays as an infrastructure provider for these use cases Fireblocks’ pilot project with Aave in the Brazilian Central Bank’s Digital Real Lift lab cohort

Rony Szuster covers Ethereum and smart contract platforms for Mercado Bitcoin’s research team. He was kind enough to join the podcast to help us understand these critical updates, the impacts they may have on the market and how they fit into the broader Ethereum roadmap. In this episode we cover: the difference between Ethereum’s Consensus Layer and Execution Layer, and how the two chains communicate with one another potential impacts to the market and network security should a large amount of staked ETH be withdrawn and sold the role of liquid staking platforms like Lido and Rocketpool once withdrawals have been enabled the viability of ETH staking as an investment opportunity in the Brazilian investment climate You can find Rony’s latest report on the Shapella fork here. You can connect with him and the rest of the MB research team in the Mercado Bitcoin Discord server. Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

Nearly two years after first entering the Brazil market, Bitso Brasil received its payment institution license last week from the Brazilian Central Bank. The license will enable the exchange to offer a new array of financial products and services in the market. I took the occasion to catch up with Bitso CEO Daniel Vogel and Thales de Freitas, CEO of Bitso Brasil, to discuss the new license as well as the ups and downs of Bitso’s first two years of operating in Brazil. These include reaching one million customers, adoption of novel cross-border payment mechanisms that use crypto rails and becoming a leader in the crypto regulatory conversation in Brasilia. Other themes we discussed include: The successes and struggles of launching in Brazil during a complicated market cycle The importance of building new bridges between crypto and the Tradfi worlds Bitso’s value proposition to customers in an increasingly competitive market A glimpse into Bitso’s 2023 Brazil roadmap Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

Juliana Walenkamp is the head of institutional sales for Latam at BitGo in Brazil and has spent time representing other Web3 household names like Ripple, Gemini and Transfero in the region. In this conversation we dive into the evolution of BitGo as a company since first offering basic multi-sig products in 2013 to becoming a full-fledged qualified custodian that offers a plethora of other products such as liquidity, staking and access to decentralized finance portals through Metamask. We also touch on: the challenges international companies like BitGo face when entering Brazil why BitGo will be applying for a virtual asset service provider license in Brazil the importance of custodying crypto assets with a regulated or “qualified” custodian with a fiduciary responsibility how institutional interest in crypto products is growing in Brazil the importance of asset segregation practices post-FTX BitGo’s role in the Latam market vis-a-vis competitors like Fireblocks, Coinbase, Gemini, etc. You can connect with Juliana on Linkedin. Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.  

For today’s episode I brought in one of the Brazil’s top crypto journalists and one of the its leading Web3 investors to discuss the potential impacts of this technology on Brazil’s economy. Both are friends and previous guests of the show João Zecchin is a co-founder of Fuse Capital, which is one of Brazil’s first Web3 native venture capital firms. You can listen to my previous episode with him here. Paulo Alves is the crypto editor at InfoMoney, which is one of Brazil’s leading financial media publications. (Previous episode here) Some of the themes we discuss: why the money transfer use case in Brazil has largely been solved by Pix how the Digital Real will unlock “real world” asset tokenization use cases that produce real yield for holders, and how these developments could unlock new capital flows into the country what Digital Real innovation will mean for existing commercial banks and how it can stimulate greater competition in the Brazilian financial system potential new new products and services that could be unlocked via Digital Real infrastructure Please follow and subscribe to Brazil Crypto Report on Substack for more news, analysis and interviews examining the Brazil crypto ecosystem.