Number of Firms Holding Crypto Assets Touch Record High in Brazil

Brazil is seemingly witnessing a boom in institutional crypto investors, latest findings by the country's taxation authority, Receita Federal do Brasil (RFB) has hinted via its latest findings. Presently, a total of 12,053 organisations have declared holding cryptocurrency in Brazil. This marks a six percent hike from the 11,360 companies that had declared holding crypto around July this year. The development has come to light at a time when Brazil's inflation rate hit a 26-year high of 12.1 percent in April.

Bitcoin, followed by stablecoin Tether are the two most popular cryptocurrencies held by Brazilian organisations.

While the number of institutional investments have risen in Brazil's crypto sector, the value of the total declarations seems to have dropped notably.

In August, these investments sipped down to $2.1 billion (roughly Rs. 17,298 crore) from the July figure of $3.4 billion (roughly Rs. 28,008 crore).

Tether had the most value transacted, with over $1.42 billion (roughly Rs. 11,695 crore) moved across nearly 80,000 transactions in August, averaging roughly $17,500 (roughly Rs. 14 lakh) per transaction, a CoinTelegraph report said.

The residents of Brazil, have time and again shown their inclination towards experimenting with the virtual digital assets sector.

In May, Nubank, Brazil's largest digital bank by market value, began offering Bitcoin and Ether to be bought or sold on its platform. Nubank's decision was fuelled by the rising number of crypto investors there.

In a September report, Bitstamp said that 77 percent population of Brazil trusted digital assets.

In a bid to ensure the safety of crypto investors, the public prosecution office of Brazil's central-western Federal District has launched a special investigation unit to prevent, probe, and even tackle the aftermath of crypto crimes.

As part of its crypto laws, Brazil is laying major focus on establishing relevant fines and punishments for those who misuse cryptocurrencies for unlawful activities like money laundering, fraud, and other white-collar crimes.

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