Sphere was about to launch its in late 2022 before FTX blew. While discouraging, the moment proved to be perfect timing for finding real customers for its cross-border #stablecoin rails
Banco Inter was Brazil's first digital bank, launching in 2005 nearly a decade before Nubank and others
20 years later it is blazing a trail with regard to adopting crypto assets, AI and quantum computing to create better products for its global client base
😱Brazilian pension funds have banned from investing in crypto
Brazil’s National Monetary Council, its top financial policy body, banned certain types of pension funds from investing in cryptocurrencies because the asset class is deemed too risky.
Specifically, closed pension vehicles known as EFPCs are impacted by the rule. These funds manage retirement savings for thousands of unionized and company-employed workers.
Brazil’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement: “The resolution also prohibits investments in virtual assets, considering their specific investment characteristics and associated risk.”
The Economist highlights the success of Brazil's Pix instant payment system, which is the closest functioning thing we have to a retail CBDC anywhere in the world
The system moved US$4.5 trillion worth of value in 2024, showing how Brazil is becoming effectively a cashless society
💡The point of crypto is not to get rich or save a few basis points on transactions, it's to create alternative systems that can compete with ineffective institutions that do not serve their constituencies any longer!
🚨 Lula representative says bitcoin strategic reserve is of “public interest”
Pedro Giocondo Guerra, chief of staff to Brazi's Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, spoke about the bitcoin reserve topic during the inauguration of Federal Deputy Julio Lopes as the new president of the Parliamentary Front for Competitive Brazil.
In the first such remarks made by a representative of Brazil’s executive branch, he said that:
“Debating rigorously the creation of a sovereign reserve of Bitcoin value is in the public interest and will be crucial to our prosperity. After all, Bitcoin is digital gold, the gold of the internet."
"It is a technology that allows us to quickly transfer wealth from one end of the planet to the other and store the fruits of our labor efficiently and safely.”