The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office Higher School (ESMPU) hosted the opening of the international seminar “Regulation and competition in the digital market” on Monday (18). The activity, carried out in partnership with the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) and the University of Brasília (UnB), continues until Tuesday (19), at Cade.

Among the topics discussed in the matter, even the regulation of cryptocurrency brokers in Brazil came up in the debates.

This is the third seminar promoted by ESMPU and Cade. The 2024 edition, for example, seeks to discuss regulation and competition in the digital market, especially the digital payments system brought by Law No. 12,865/2013.

Representatives from the MPF, MPDFT and state MPs, Cade, UnB, the Brazilian Institute for Studies on Competition, Consumption and International Trade (Ibrac), the Brazilian Association of Law and Economics (ABDE) and the Institute for Studies in Social Sciences (IE) will participate in the activity. With information from ESMPU.

All cryptocurrency brokers operating in Brazil will have to follow new rules, confirms BC director

In his participation, the Director of Regulation of the Central Bank of Brazil, Otávio Ribeiro Damasceno, spoke about the regulator's activities in the country today.

According to him, one of the most important processes underway is the regulation of cryptocurrency brokers. Damasceno recalls that the agency does not regulate this market, but that after a determination by the executive, after the arrival of Law 14,478/2022, it was up to the BC to begin its supervision.

Currently, the central bank has opened a public consultation to talk to the market, seeking to open a dialogue with participants. But in the future, according to Damasceno, the entire national market will be fully regulated.

“A third front that was assigned to the central bank, which we have just released a public consultation on regulation, is all these cryptocurrency exchanges,” said the BCB director. “This is a new universe for the central bank. The central bank did not regulate this; there was a law, if I am not mistaken, two years ago. A year ago, the President of the Republic designated the responsible body as the central bank. We spent this year studying it and released this public consultation,” he concluded.

“It will be a huge challenge, because it is a market that the central bank does not know, it has no direct relationship with it, we do not even know how many cryptocurrency exchanges there are in the country.

“Not everyone will want rules, and we are concerned about the marginal market”, says director

Continuing his explanation, Otávio stated that the new regulation will reach all cryptocurrency brokers in Brazil. However, some businesses may not be able to prove the necessary documents, which could lead to the creation of a marginal market.

According to our regulations, all of them will have to be authorized and will be supervised by the central bank, but not necessarily all of them will want to enter this field, so you will probably end up having a marginal market there that will require a large share, so this is another one that is on the agenda and has been worrying us a lot.”

Damasceno also stated that the process of authorizing companies is a delicate and very intrusive process, which is not easy for companies to adapt to. In addition, he stated that the supervision process also follows the same hard line, closing the doors to companies that fail to follow the rules.