Crypto CEOs are courting Brazil’s central bank as legislation moves through National Congress

CEOs from two cryptocurrency exchanges were scheduled to meet with Brazil’s Central Bank president Roberto Campos Neto in the past few days, indicating that talks between industry and the government are ongoing even as the country waits for lawmakers to potentially approve a new crypto regulation law. 

As spotted by Brazilian publication Portal do Bitcoin, an official agenda showed a videoconference scheduled between Campos Neto and three Binance executives on Friday afternoon to discuss “institutional matters.” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was listed as an attendee, along with vice-president of government relations, Latin America, Daniel Mangabeira and vice-president of global expansion Matt Schroder. That meeting was shown as being closed to the press. Binance declined to comment on the nature of the meetings. 

That publication also spotted that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and two other company executives had a video meeting scheduled today with Campos Neto, also out of the public eye. According to the agenda, the participants were to present their “macroeconomic scenario.” Coinbase did not comment by press time.

Both Binance and Coinbase have signaled interest in acquiring Brazilian companies, and have been expanding in the region. Coinbase has been in talks with Mercado Bitcoin parent 2TM about a possible expansion deal, but Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the talks fell through. Coinbase also recently hired Fabio Tonetto Plein as its new Brazil country manager, who joins the crypto company after previous management roles at PicPay and Uber.

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Binance, on the other hand, announced in mid-March that it would “explore” the acquisition of Brazilian securities brokerage Sim;paul Investimentos. The status of those talks is unknown. 

The meetings come as a proposed crypto regulation bill has finally gained momentum with Brazilian lawmakers, following years of deliberation. The legislation still has to pass muster with Brazil’s lower house before it would go to president Jair Bolsonaro for a vote, but it could have a decent shot of becoming law. The bill gives Brazil’s executive branch the ability to decide on which government entity would regulate crypto companies, although rapporteur Irajá Abreu has told Bloomberg that he thinks that Brazil’s Central Bank would ultimately be in charge.

Meanwhile, Brazilians now have more options than ever to trade crypto as additional exchanges move into the market and even banks start embracing digital assets. Fintech unicorn Nubank announced last week that it would work with Paxos to offer bitcoin and ether trading to its customers, and exchange Bybit recently launched in Brazil. The broker XP also recently revealed it would work with Nasdaq to create a new digital asset trading platform for Brazilian customers. 

And investment bank BTG Pactual also looks ready to launch its crypto trading platform Mynt, which was originally expected to launch as soon as the end of 2021. The bank’s CEO Roberto Sallouti said during a May 9 earnings call that the new tool will be ready in two months, Cointelegraph Brasil reported.

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