Fintech 2026

BRAZIL Law and Practice Contributed by: Eduardo Castro, Pedro Nasi and Gabriel Libanori, Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice

10.5 Regulation of Blockchain Asset Trading Platforms Custody and intermediation of virtual assets and the public offering of blockchain assets seen as securities are regulated. Blockchain assets seen as securities (collective invest - ment contracts) may only be publicly distributed and issued upon prior registration with the CVM, and with observance of the self-regulatory rules, and must be distributed via securities intermediaries duly author - ised by the CVM and the BCB. Blockchain assets characterised as virtual assets based on Law No 14,478 are traded by VASPs, which may be either “pure” VASPs or institutions already regulated by the BCB that may also provide virtual asset services (eg, commercial banks). The regulation requiring prior BCB authorisation entered into force on 2 February 2026. Institutions that were already func - tioning as VASPs had a grandfathering period of 270 days to adapt to the new regulatory requirements. 10.6 Staking Staking is defined by the BCB as the procedure through which an individual or a company allows its virtual assets to be blocked by a VASP in order to participate in transaction validation through a system based on a distributed ledger technology (or similar technology) that uses proof of participation as its con - sensus mechanism. Participants may earn compen - sation from such operation. Staking may be done by VASPs provided that clients are informed of the risks of such operation according to applicable rules. 10.7 Crypto-Related Lending Any institution authorised to operate by the BCB (except for “pure” VASPs and foreign exchange bro - kers) that acts as an intermediary may grant financing to their clients to purchase virtual assets ( operação de conta margem ) from it, as long as: • the virtual assets are given as collateral to the creditor; • the amount of the virtual asset given as collateral, as well as other collateral provided by the debtor, is at least 200% of the amount of the entire financing on the date it was granted; and

The use of blockchain in the financial services indus - try has been evolving rapidly, with ongoing projects including the BCB’s proposed central bank digital cur - rency (CBDC; moeda digital do banco central – DREX). From a practical standpoint, blockchain is being used in the financial services industry especially for the remittance of funds to Brazil from abroad, and vice versa, to facilitate the inter-banking foreign exchange market, and to effect carry trade based on stablecoins backed by the Brazilian real and government bonds. 10.2 Local Regulators’ Approach to Blockchain The use of blockchain itself is not regulated, and nei - ther is the issuance and tokenisation of virtual assets. As detailed in 6.3 Impact of the Emergence of Cryp- tocurrency Exchanges , regulated assets are securi - ties and financial assets. When classified as securities or financial assets, blockchain assets are under the local regulator’s supervision. Currently enacted regu - lation was formulated by means of public consulta - tions. 10.3 Classification of Blockchain Assets Regulated blockchain assets in Brazil are classified as securities, falling under the CVM’s jurisdiction (defined by Article 3 of Law 14,478 of 21 December 2022 as “the digital representation of value that may be negotiated or transferred through electronic meth - ods and used to conduct payments or investments”). The same article expressly excludes assets that are not defined as virtual assets. Virtual assets fall under the BCB’s jurisdiction. No other blockchain assets are regulated in Brazil. 10.4 Regulation of “Issuers” of Blockchain Assets Issuers of blockchain-based assets are not regulated in Brazil. However, the trading of assets classified as securities or virtual assets (as mentioned in 10.3 Clas- sification of Blockchain Assets ) is regulated. Bill of Law No 4,308 of 2024 proposes that issuers of sta - blecoins should be regulated and require prior authori - sation to operate in the Brazilian foreign exchange market.

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