Advertisement
The bill to control the cryptocurrency market in Brazil is expected to be passed by the National Assembly in the first half of 2022.
The bill has been controversial in the House since 2015, but it passed in the first round of consideration. The Senate tied the bill to another cryptocurrency bill that was passed by the Senate Economic Affairs Committee.
Two lawmakers, Senator Iraja Abreu and Mp Aureo Ribeiro, are the two rapporteurs of the drafts. They are drafting a unified text of the bill that will be sent to a formal Senate vote.
Senator Iraja said that the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, would bring the complete bill to a vote in April 2022. He stated, "By joining together in these projects, we are accelerating a new milestone in the cryptocurrency industry. The market is demanding a safer business environment and the need to classify criminals to avoid fraud, while helping Brazil adjust to international agreements."
Ratifying the bill at the vote will not make Bitcoin the legal currency in Brazil as it is in El Salvador.
The proposed bill would allow brazil's president to set up a body responsible for creating regulations for cryptocurrencies. The President will create a new legislative party or delegate this function to the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) or the Central Bank of Brazil (BC).
The legislator will be responsible for establishing market regulations and norms in line with international standards for combating money laundering and asset concealment.
The bill also proposes a penalty of four to eight years in prison in addition to fines for fraudsters in the provision of digital asset services.
Another item highlighted in the bill is incentives for cryptocurrency miners set up based in Brazil. This provision proposes to exempt the import duty of ASICs into Brazil. However, this is not attractive enough to attract Bitcoin miners as energy prices in Brazil are one of the highest countries in South America and about 5 times that of countries such as Paraguay and Venezuela.
