Brazil’s crypto market moves billions of dollars a month, and regulators are taking notice.
In a technical presentation at Blockchain Conference Brasil, Flavio Correa Prado, an accountant at Brazil’s tax authority, Receita Federal, revealed that crypto transactions reported under existing rules have reached between $6 billion and $8 billion per month.
If current trends continue, that figure could rise to $9 billion a month by 2030, he said. Most of this volume comes from stablecoins like USDT and USDC, which now account for up to 90% of all reported transactions in some months. Bitcoin, once dominant, has become a secondary player as the country adopts stablecoins.
This shift towards stablecoins and the scale of the volumes is driving a major change in how Brazil tracks crypto assets. The Receita Federal is set to replace its existing crypto reporting rule (known as IN 1,888) with a new system called DeCripto, starting in July 2025.
DeCripto is based on the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), an international standard developed by the OECD and adopted by more than 60 countries. The framework enables the automatic exchange of tax information between jurisdictions, giving local authorities access to data on offshore cryptocurrency transactions.
Under the new rules, exchanges must classify transactions into specific categories: crypto-to-fiat trades, crypto-to-crypto swaps, retail payments over $50,000, transfers in and out of wallets, and movements to non-hosted wallets.
Data collection will begin in January 2025. With billions in monthly flow, mostly in dollar-linked assets, the country’s tax authority is effectively tightening oversight to match the scale of Brazil’s fast-growing crypto economy.
These changes come as Brazil’s central bank introduces its most comprehensive set of crypto regulations to date.
The new framework creates a licensing regime for crypto service providers and brings a wide range of activities under the country’s foreign exchange and capital market rules. Crypto companies must have between $2 million and $7 million in capital, depending on their business type, and foreign companies serving Brazilian clients must establish a local entity.
Companies that miss the nine-month compliance window risk being barred from operations.
