Before the bill can become law, it still needs to be approved by the executive branch.
Even though Brazil hasn’t made Bitcoin legal money like El Salvador did last year, the South American country did pass a law that makes crypto payments legal everywhere in the country.
A federal legislative body in Brazil called the Chamber of Deputies has passed a set of rules that makes it legal to use cryptocurrencies as a form of payment in the country. Even though this is a big step forward for crypto in Brazil, the law still needs to be signed by the president of Brazil before it can go into effect.
Even though the bill passed, none of the cryptocurrencies are now legal currency in the country. But the bill will add digital currencies and air mileage programs to the list of ways to pay that are regulated by the central bank of the country.
After it becomes a law, the government’s executive branch has to decide which office will be in charge of watching over it. Still, the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission will be in charge of tokens that will be considered securities (CVM).
Aside from making crypto a payment method, the law also lets licenses be made for crypto exchange platforms and for third parties to hold and manage crypto. In addition, the law will require exchanges to make it clear which funds belong to the company and which belong to users. This is to make sure that something like the FTX collapse doesn’t happen again.
Back in June, a similar proposal was issued to allow Brazilians to use crypto as a means of payment and protect their private keys from being taken by courts. The goal of the proposal is to make crypto assets a way to buy and sell goods, services, and investments as well as an “instrument of access” to these things.
The collapse of FTX has affected many parts of the crypto space, but Thiago César, CEO of Transfero Group, which has close ties to the Brazilian crypto ecosystem, says it won’t change how Brazilians use crypto every day.