Brazil Appoints Central Bank and Securities Commission as Crypto Market Regulators

Brazil’s executive branch has designated the country’s Central Bank and its Securities Commission as responsible for overseeing the crypto market, according to a decree published on Wednesday.

The Securities Commission will exercise control over assets considered securities, while the Central Bank will determine the rules that exchanges must follow, including licensing requirements to operate, the decree detailed, finance news outlet InfoMoney reported.

In December 2022, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro approved a crypto regulation bill that was passed by Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The law created a “virtual service provider” license and established a crime of fraud involving virtual assets, with a penalty of between four and six years in jail plus a fine.

Brazil has become a regional crypto hub, with a high adoption rate of stablecoins and a market in which major crypto companies and protocols such as Coinbase, Bitget and Metamask have opened operations.