Central Bank regulation worries crypto market in Brazil

On November 10, 2025, the Central Bank published three resolutions establishing a series of new rules for the cryptocurrency sector in Brazil. The lack of clarity about possible new taxes is one of the factors causing fear among market players.

The new rules establish, among other mechanisms:

• The creation of the Virtual Asset Service Providers for cryptocurrency intermediaries, custodians or brokers, which must be authorized by the Central Bank.
• A Resolution 519, The new law, which regulates the provision of virtual asset services and defines who can carry out this activity, will come into force on February 2, 2026. It comes into force on February 2, 2026.
• A Resolution no. 520, The new law, which lays down rules for the authorization of SPSAVs to operate, also starts in February 2026.
• A Resolution no. 521, The new law, which classifies certain operations with cryptoassets as belonging to the international foreign exchange and capital markets - with reporting obligations to the Central Bank as of May 4, 2026.
• Specific limits and conditions: for example, international payment or transfer operations using virtual assets fall within the scope of foreign exchange, and there are limits imposed on unauthorized counterparties (such as US$ 100,000 for international transfers via virtual assets).
• Emphasis on governance, internal controls, segregation of assets, independent auditing and identification of ownership: requirements considered more demanding than the sector was used to.

Main changes

What's more, the Central Bank now requires a minimum capital of between R$ 10.8 million and R$ 37.2 million for companies to be able to operate with cryptocurrencies, according to the risk of the activity.

While these new rules increase security for investors by ensuring that companies authorized by the Central Bank are truly solid, they can also slow down innovation and reduce competitiveness. After all, would the giants of the sector have succeeded if they had faced these demands right from the start?

With the regulation, cryptocurrency debit cards for Brazilian customers will become the exclusive preserve of companies authorized by the Central Bank. In other words, services that have been on the rise this year, such as Kast and Avalanche, will have to establish themselves in the country or stop serving Brazilians.

The regulation also makes room for the collection of taxes, in particular IOF on the purchase and sale of stablecoins, which still creates uncertainty in the market in relation to stablecoins paired with the real.

IOF on national stablecoins wouldn't make sense

For Rocelo Lopes, CEO of SmartPay, the possibility of stablecoins backed by the real being treated as foreign exchange transactions would open up space for charges without economic logic.

“There are stablecoins pegged to the real where it wouldn't make sense to have an IOF. It would be the equivalent of charging IOF on transfers via Pix. If the parity is one-to-one with the real, there is no logic in creating additional taxation.”

Lopes warns that a poorly calibrated definition can discourage innovation:

“We need to define what the tax will be so as not to kill this economy. Brazil cannot, once again, become just a spectator of a technology that it can lead.”

“It's strange to say that I pay more to acquire a crypto-asset paired with the real and lose when I exchange it back into fiat currency. It's discouraging and doesn't make sense.”

But for the entrepreneur, good regulation could strengthen the Brazilian ecosystem and make national solutions competitive and, despite the uncertainties, regulatory progress has still had its positive aspect.

“This definition could encourage domestic industry and benefit companies that are developing new economic models using the real as a reference. But we need to be very careful with the form of taxation.”

“The regulation gives more clarity to the market. It establishes rules, brings predictability and allows us to talk to foreign banks and investors with confidence.”

“It's no longer like in the past, when banks closed accounts because of a lack of rules. Today, banks sell cryptocurrencies precisely because there are regulations.”