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Crypto and blockchain: What the Brazilian market can expect for 2021

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2020 will be remembered as one of the most difficult years for contemporary societies: Countries and entire populations have faced lockdowns and economic crises, financial markets still suffer from the severe impacts of the economic recession, and more than 2 million lives have been taken by COVID-19.

Despite this, other sectors have been impacted in other ways during the severe global health crisis — which still seems far from over, even though vaccines are beginning to be distributed in wealthy countries. Economies have radically digitalized, hedge assets have attracted mistrust, and the crypto market has had one of its most important years since 2009, the year of Bitcoin’s (BTC) launch.

In fact, the crypto and blockchain markets have stood out in the face of a crisis that has spared almost no sector. Cryptocurrency funds are among the most profitable of the year, Bitcoin and the biggest altcoins reach new historic highs, large institutions and investors in the financial markets have allocated investments in Bitcoin, and blockchain technology has broken down barriers in the financial sector and in the production chains of the most varied of sectors.

Faced with a year of profound changes, what is to be expected for the future? Cointelegraph Brasil invited some of the country’s top crypto and blockchain experts to chart the next steps for the market.

Institutional investment

Institutional investment was highlighted in 2020, finally reaching the cryptosphere, and it promises another year of growth in 2021.

According to Rodrigo Borges, founding member of the Oxford Blockchain Foundation, large Bitcoin contributions by institutional investors — which have even bought more BTC than the production capacity of miners — will intensify in 2021: “Regarding Bitcoin, I imagine that there will be an increase in demand for institutional investors, enabling the emergence of new products with exposure to Bitcoin,” analyzed Borges. He also sees “2021 as a year of consolidation and strong development in the sector.”

As for Tatiana Revoredo, MIT blockchain expert and Cointelegraph Brasil columnist, the custody of cryptocurrencies by traditional financial institutions and the adoption of stablecoins will be key in the new year:

“In the financial sector, we will see applications for custody of crypto assets being launched in Brazil, with the possible participation of the traditional market. And if the regulatory authorities allow it, stablecoins will have an expressive role in the Brazilian market, with the turnover being able to quadruple in size.”

Crypto markets

Crypto markets experienced a year of extreme optimism — or greed, as demonstrated by the Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Bitcoin reached a dramatic bottom close at $3,800 in March, and it beat its 2017 historic high of $20,000 on Dec. 16. In Brazil, the currency set a new historical record in November when it reached $106,000 Brazillian reals.

Cointelegraph Markets reporter Marcel Pechman highlighted the behavior of the market despite the setbacks suffered during the year. He recalled: “The Bitcoin and Ethereum markets developed in 2020 as never before imagined, both in terms of trading volume, price and the contribution of renowned investors like Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller.”

Pechman said that despite the crypto market suffering some setbacks, the impact of those setbacks on market performance was not so significant: “We had, for example, the US Department of Justice suing BitMEX — at the time, the largest derivatives exchange — and KuCoin’s $280 million hack, and none of those affected the market.”

Pechman also recalled that the 2020 DeFi race led to expensive transaction costs on the Ethereum network but did not impact market sentiment.

OriginalMy CEO Edilson Osório agreed with the promising future of the DeFi sector, but he cautioned against fraud:

“This is an experimental and very promising market, but it must be given extra attention because of malicious groups applying scams and fraud in general. As it is a very new market, platforms may have problems with hacks, and due to the great centralization that exists (even with many platforms presenting themselves as decentralized), there is still a risk of exit scams.”

About 2020’s innovations, and the digitalization imposed by the COVID-19 crisis, Pechman also said that it will go even deeper in 2021:

“Successive innovations, which include Taproot, Schnorr and Lightning Network in Bitcoin, in addition to the launch of Ethereum 2.0 phase 0, pave the way for the next wave, with increasingly larger, scalable applications, and interconnected with traditional finance. The final proof? Fidelity offers loans covered in cryptocurrencies.”

On the domestic markets, Osório is betting on the tokenization market in Brazil, which is already used by the country’s largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin. According to him, 2021 will be a year for “maturing the security tokens market.”

“Existing protocols are beginning to be well regarded by regulators, since most of them provide for greater participation and visibility on the part of the regulator itself and allow the mitigation of various risks inherent in this market. In this race, there is a great chance that Brazil will gain prominence because the local regulator has established a regulatory sandbox and the first projects are already beginning to mobilize to have their applications running in a more legally secure environment,” – noted Osório.

Another player at the Brazilian crypto markets, João Paulo Mayall — head of operations at QR Asset Management — is also optimistic about the tokenization market in 2021. He highlighted the role of regulators in the sector’s expansion in the South American country: “I believe that the future is the tokenization of assets, debentures, court bonds, government debts. Brazil is very advanced in its banking system and we will have many surprises in this sector, so I am very optimistic. Tokenization is a billion-dollar market, but it lacks the infrastructure. Innovation came in front of the regulators, but I think they are open to listening and working on it. I think [the regulation] will happen next year, even before March 2021.”

Finally, blockchain expert Tatiana Revoredo argued that crypto adoption in Brazil, which saw its currency melt in 2020, will intensify, with Bitcoin once again asserting itself as an economic-protection asset. She believes that the crypto markets will see “an increase in the interest of Brazilians, with consequent increase in the Brazilian market, with a prominent role for Bitcoin being adopted as a protective asset.”

CBDCs and national governments

The digitization of economies has placed the discussion of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, at the center of debates by financial authorities around the world. One of the countries that has definitely entered this race is China, which is already conducting real tests of the digital yuan in the country. Its main geopolitical rival, the U.S., announced that for the time being, it does not intend to digitize the dollar, but it is already seeing internal pressure from not following the Chinese leadership in the sector.

The Central Bank of Brazil has also commented on the transformation of the Brazillian real into a digital currency a few times, although there are no concrete plans for that in the short term.

Osório believes the European Union will join the hype soon, further accelerating the global race for CBDCs: “Although China appears to be leading the CBDC race, other countries are also beginning to move in this direction. Among them, Estonia, which recently started an internal consultation for the launch of its currency in the digital version. In particular, I believe that in Europe a more comprehensive and organized movement should take place in this sense, given the incentives promoted by the European Union.”

Many experts try to predict the impacts of CBDCs on economies — one of the main concerns of economic regulators. Governments, which largely study the adoption of blockchain in their public processes, should also enter the debate on privacy and the digitization of money.

According to Tatiana Revoredo, “in the government sector, the forecast is for the growth of [blockchain] applications in document registration and health applications, as well as a greater concern, by the citizens, regarding the relationship between privacy and CBDC.” She also claims that payments processors should closely monitor this innovation:

“Those who should be more attentive to these movements are the means of payment, such as PayPal and their peers. They will have to look deeply into their business models as soon as governments start issuing their currencies digitally. ”

Blockchain adoption

Governments have also viewed blockchain technology through a positive lens. In Brazil and Latin America, several state entities already use the technology to certify documents, including customs and notary offices. Big companies are also adopting blockchain to certify production, with use cases that are only expected to grow going forward.

Borges said that the acceleration of blockchain adoption by large companies and governments can positively impact crypto assets:

“Within the scope of blockchain technology, I see the development of interesting solutions, with the increasing involvement of traditional players, especially in the financial and agribusiness sectors, which may result in increased liquidity for certain assets.”

Revoredo agreed and highlighted the advancement of technology in the agricultural sector: “There has been a significant advance in agribusiness, with use in the identification of devices (drones, for example), integration with IoT and artificial intelligence to provide greater reliability and certify quality of agricultural production.”

Osório defended the growth of the blockchain market in 2020 and its prospects for the near future: “When we look at advances in blockchain with applications beyond digital currency, we see a growing market in the area of ​​decentralized digital identity, including with the approach of governments. We have seen movements in governments in the US and Japan, interested in modernizing their digital governance models. And the pandemic has certainly helped to accelerate and advance discussions on the issue around the world, as it understands that the digitization of analog and traditional services is a necessity.”

The end of 2020 was a milestone that closed out one of the most dramatic years in the history of contemporary societies, but it also revealed ways to combat global economic and health crises.

Blockchain technology has helped societies fight corruption, adopt more transparent processes and even contributed to the certification of medicines and vaccines during the most serious health crisis of the last 100 years, in addition to helping companies to improve procedures, products and services.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has strengthened as an economic protection and investment product, has attracted institutional investment giants, and — together with other crypto technologies — has even laid the foundation for central banks around the world to start implementing their own digital currencies.

We still do not know the depth of the revolution we are experiencing with the digitalization of societies and the weakening of national currencies around the world, but by the end of 2021, we will certainly know many of the answers to the questions that still plague us at the beginning of this new year.

Crypto and blockchain: What the Brazilian market can expect for 2021

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Real Estate Investing Through Security Tokens

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Codezeros

Real estate being the largest global market in the world, is currently valued at approximately $200 trillion which is 33 times more than the global gold market. Small improvements in the real estate market can have tremendous economic value. It’s hard to find a segment that has not been influenced by Blockchain Technology and real estate couldn’t escape the blockchain disruption either.

In this article, we will look at how blockchain technology can be leveraged to invest in real estate through STO solutions.

Tokenization refers to the digitization of real-world assets. With the help of Blockchain in Real Estate, digital assets can be programmed to represent ownership rights, which can be sold as “security tokens”. Through the use of robust smart contracts and technology, security tokens create a standard trade between buyers and sellers.

The main difference between security and utility token is that security token holders are entitled to ownership rights and are considered as “securities” by most financial regulators whereas utility tokens function as coupons and give holders no right or stake in the asset.

Real estate being the largest global market in the world, is currently valued at approximately $200 trillion which is 33 times more than the global gold market. Small improvements in the real estate market can have tremendous economic value.

Let’s explore some possible improvements in-depth:

  1. Increased Liquidity In Real Estate

Blockchain technology in real estate adds liquidity in the intrinsically illiquid market. With Security Token Development, it is easy for the owners of expensive properties to quickly sell their assets without affecting the price. Miniscule investors can diversify their global real estate portfolio with a small ticket.

2. Reduced Intermediaries

With blockchain, the number of intermediaries is reduced almost to naught as most of the processes are automated and minimal human participation is required. This substantially eradicates the fees and charges paid to the intermediaries, which will ultimately result in significant cost and time savings.

3. Enables Fractional Ownership

Blockchain real estate development would lower the barriers to real estate investing by allowing fractional ownership. Typically, investors would require a significant amount of money upfront to acquire property but tokenizing ownership enables “fractional shares” which lowers the capital requirement. Hence, it would be possible to hold half or even 10% or 20% of the land.

4. Diversifies Real Estate Portfolio

Diversifying investments minimizes the risk. Real estate investing through blockchain enables the ability to diversify the investments not only by region but also by allowing the investors to spread their money in different categories of real estate; be it residential, multifamily, commercial, or cash flow properties. By tokenizing ownership of a real estate, investors do not necessarily have to own 100% of a single property but they can own 10% of a property in 10 different cities around the globe.

5. Irrefutable Proof Of Real Estate Ownership

The digital history of transactions held in the blockchain ledger enables the investors and stakeholders to prove their ownership beyond any doubt. This technology leaves no room for fraud attempts. It shows the exact history of ownership and makes it impossible to falsify transactions or con the investors.

In the next part, we look at some of the ongoing projects who used Blockchain real estate development by converting them into security tokens.

Polymath

Polymath makes it easy to unlock the blockchain to tokenize and trade assets. It is dramatically lowering the barriers by providing STO Solutions that represent real-world ownership of assets such as real estate. It is an ecosystem that comprises KYC/AML, broker-dealers, law firms, and exchanges that facilitate the compliance of security tokens.

Polymath had partnered with BlockEstate, a real estate fund in an attempt to use predictive analytics to manage its real estate portfolio. Unfortunately, they decided to shut down the project which would have been the first instance of a real estate property represented by the ST-20 Security Token protocol.

Harbor

A platform designed for tokenizing private investments, Harbor seeks to leverage blockchain technology to record, maintain, and transfer ownership of investments including real estate. It provides a decentralized protocol to establish and maintain standardization for tokenized securities. Announced with much fanfare, Harbor’s STO Development Services for a real estate project (Hub at Columbia REIT) had collapsed.

ReitBZ

Security Token Offering Development by ReitBZ is the first of its kind for the Brazilian real estate market. It combines local expertise and global reach to offer the best investment opportunities for its investors. They claim that real estate is a flourishing market in Brazil and after a period of economic lockdown they have started to recover and it is the right time to invest in this asset class.

Challenges

Though blockchain technology could have a drastic effect on the real estate industry, it is still in its early stages and full adoption and adaptation across the real estate industry come with its own set of challenges like regulatory uncertainty and general lack of understanding in the budding industry as many are yet to fully explore its potential applicability.

Though it is clear that this emerging technology has the potential to disrupt the real estate industry, there is a long road ahead before it reaches maturity. We see a strong promise and future regarding its implementation and proper regulation with time and efforts and before we know, we would be buying our new house on the blockchain.

Real Estate Investing Through Security Tokens

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US crypto derivatives merchants need to leave customer funds alone, says CFTC

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Per guidance released Wednesday evening, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is advising businesses trading in crypto derivatives to hold customer funds very carefully.

The new guidance continues the CFTC’s interest in carving out rules for custodianship of virtual currencies — an area obviously distinct from any other asset class. Per the commission: 

“Custodians of virtual currencies are typically not subject to a system of comprehensive federal or state regulation and oversight, which includes safeguarding of these novel assets, and this raises potential risks to the protection of customer funds held at such custodians.”

The specific provisions of the guidance limit the locations that a “futures commission merchant” (FCM) can deposit customer virtual currency at to “a bank, trust company, or another FCM, or with a clearing organization that clears virtual currency futures.”

Moreover, the CFTC warns FCMs that they need to keep any such deposits in accounts clearly marked as customer funds, and will not allow gains in one account to make up for losses in another.

Effectively, the guidance seems most determined that customer crypto funds remain safe and untouched, barring FCMs from trading such funds in order to make collective gains. How big of a problem FCM trading of crypto deposits has shown itself to be goes unaddressed, but you can certainly imagine some catastrophic results of a crypto futures dealer deciding to play some volatile markets using crypto funds.

The CFTC has been busy trying to assemble a holistic framework for crypto assets. At the beginning of this month, the commission promised to protect the “burgeoning market” for these assets, an announcement that came immediately after the announcement of their pursuit of BitMEX for operating an unregistered derivatives exchange in the U.S. 

US crypto derivatives merchants need to leave customer funds alone, says CFTC

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Brazil is prepping an IPO for its state-run digital bank

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Brazil’s Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, said during an online event this Tuesday that Brazil “is about to” join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and that the Brazilian government has plans to launch a public offering of shares (IPO) for the newly-created digital bank of Caixa Econômica Federal.

Caixa Econômica Federal created a digital bank during the pandemic to help the government send financial aid to around 64 million Brazilians. Guedes’ comments came during the Milken Institute Global Conference, during which he said that the Central Bank is working to attract new investors for the country.

One of the minister’s bets is on the digital bank recently created by the state-owned Caixa Econômica Federal, which is part of Guedes’s privatization plans.

During the pandemic, the government spent heavily to combat the economic effects of COVID-19. The largest part of that fiscal support was emergency payments for low-income Brazilians, with Caixa playing a central role in identifying beneficiaries and paying benefits.

The initiative, Guedes assured the audience, generated a digital bank with 64 million users, opening up market opportunities.

According to Reuters, Guedes says that Caixa’s customer base has led to plans for an IPO for the digital bank, which wacreated “in six months” to pay government benefits:

“We digitalized 64 million people. How much is a bank with 64 million people worth? Low-income people, but people that were (bank-registered) for the very first time, so they are going to be loyal for the rest of their lives.”

According to Brazilian website InfoMoney, Guedes also said that the Central Bank will work to “guarantee” less risks to foreign investors:

“If the private sector abroad wants to pay extra money to have a guarantee […] we can give it to them for a certain price. If they want it, we’ll provide it.”

Guedes also said that Brazil has already fulfilled two thirds of the requirements to be accepted in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and should definitely enter the organization “in one year”.

Among the benchmarks that Brazil must meet to enter the OECD are transparency, regulation, combating corruption and the establishment of acquisition protocols.

Brazil is prepping an IPO for its state-run digital bank

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South Korean Blockchain Advocacy Group Calls for Tax Laws Postponement 

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However, while adoption appears to be on the rise in South Korea, industry experts have also urged the government to create an encouraging environment or players. 

A Short Implementation Window 

Most notably, industry experts have called on the government to nix its proposed crypto tax plan for now. Earlier this week, local news source News1 Korea reported that the Korea Blockchain Association (KBA), a blockchain and crypto advocacy group, requested that the government postpone implementing its crypto tax framework for 18 months.

The South Korean government’s proposed tax plan has been a particular sticking point for many in the country’s crypto space. The plan was published by the Ministry of Finance and Economy in July, with the Ministry stipulating that taxation for digital assets is a necessity as these assets continue to penetrate the traditional financial system. 

Under the new framework, the Ministry plans to categorize all gains from digital assets and intangible assets as taxable income. However, any income below 2.5 million won (about $2,000) per year falls below the Ministry’s minimum threshold and will be tax-exempt. All income above the minimum threshold will be subject to a 20 percent tax rate, on par with the tax rates for most other capital gains and taxable income in the country.

The tax laws apply to local and foreign transactions that trade digital assets via South Korean exchanges.  Under the new rules, exchanges will be responsible for all tax deductions and paying the monies to the Korean customs office. 

While the laws should come into effect on October 1, 2021, the BKA asks for a delay until January 1, 2023. As News1 Korea explained, the window for adjustment is too short, and exchanges won’t effectively adapt to the new tax regime. As the advocacy group explained, exchanges will be allowed to report on trades using the soon-to-be-outdated tax policy until the end of September. A 24-hour period will be too short for them to make the necessary changes.

Ineffective Reporting 

Oh Gap-soo, the BKA’s Chairman, also explained that a suspension of the tax code would be necessary since it is the first time the government is getting involved in digital asset taxation. He pointed out the possibility of regulators not accepting crypto firms’ reports – a possibility that could lead to sub-optimal operation

“The industry is having a great deal of difficulty in preparing for taxation because it is not equipped with a tax infrastructure in a situation where it is uncertain whether or not the business will continue ahead of the enforcement of the Special Payment Law.”

Besides the taxation laws, South Korean exchanges are also fighting back against the government’s mandatory identity verification rules. As Digital Today reported last week, the new regulations require exchanges to collect several details from their customers, including and especially social security numbers. However, that is a direct contradiction to the country’s Personal Information Protection Act.

South Korean Blockchain Advocacy Group Calls for Tax Laws Postponement 

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Law Decoded: Police and thieves on their screens, Oct 2–9

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Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law.

Editor’s note

Historians typically date the birth of international policing as we know it today to the 1800s, a response to the explosion in nationalist movements and non-governmental political radicalism in Europe. Just as new linking technologies like the telegraph and the steam engine aided and abetted new networks of political deplorables and any number of Sherlock Holmes plots, the explosion of communications tech of the last quarter-century has brought about new forms of crime. 

Which is, y’know, something everyone passively knows. In crypto, association with crime is a familiar reputational issue that is present but certainly not unique. New technology giveth and taketh away. Law enforcement’s interest in controlling new networks also grows. Paranational organizations like drug cartels and terrorist cells come to mind.

This week saw the U.S. Department of Justice press criminal charges against ISIS agents behind American deaths including James Foley’s, a move that expands their power to prosecute foreign agents as criminals under U.S. law. The FBI also busted up a home-grown far-right conspiracy to kidnap the governor of my home state of Michigan. In crypto, several jurisdictions have laid claim to new authority, with the DoJ in particular making a number of moves to expand its jurisdiction.

DoJ vs. everybody

The Justice Department’s new “Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework” laid claim to a whole host of powers over crypto businesses that had previously been in limbo. Most notable is the generosity of what the DoJ is calling its own jurisdiction — basically anything that touches a U.S. server.

The new framework heralds a new era in the department’s crypto authority, but it’s just the clearest summary of a growing body of precedent that U.S. regulators from the SEC to the IRS have been building out for years.

The DoJ’s criminal charges against Seychelles-registered BitMEX’s leadership last week in some ways telegraphed their particular interest in combatting crime in crypto wherever in the world it may be. Most earlier involvement in crypto-linked prosecutions abroad had been focused on networks the DoJ saw as being primarily designed to finance terrorism or funnel money to sanctioned individuals. While the DoJ accused BitMEX of being a means for such action, the allegations against the leadership are not really accusing them of ideological or political illegality, but rather old-fashioned greed.

Distressing for the crypto community is, as always, the association with criminal activity. The DoJ’s report pays lip service to blockchain technology’s ability to revolutionize payments, finance, international trade, shipping, trust, consensus et al — I assume that this readership is familiar with the myriad use cases — but the report pivots compulsively to crime. From the DoJ’s side of things, that is their trade, so it makes sense, but it also adds to the unfair stigma against a technology.

Another cause for concern is that tech-savvy people in the U.S. can get around the barriers by really any crypto company, given enough time and potential profit. So as with the general trends of the last year, U.S. authorities really do seem to be building out the legal framework to give themselves jurisdiction over crypto basically anywhere. World Police indeed.

UK shuts door on whole genre of crypto investment

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority nixed trading of crypto-based derivatives — including futures, options and swaps — for all retail investors starting in January.

While the FCA may not be as globally hawkish on crypto as its U.S. analogues, London remains Europe’s financial center. Much like Brexit itself, the predicted exodus from London has seen delays that seem to mock all bold predictions.

With its focus on retail investors, however, the FCA has obviously designed its new ban to be more of a protective maneuver for regular Britons rather than a handicap on the reigning heavyweight champs of the London Stock Exchange.

Nonetheless, as the UK’s position within both Europe and the global economy is vulnerable, implementing a stringent ban on a new asset class seems like yet another way of recusing itself from the financial future. As mentioned earlier, determined UK crypto investors will almost certainly be able to get around the new ban to access offshore exchanges with less legal accountability to the UK and more extravagant and risky leveraged offerings. 

But maybe a somewhat built-in assumption is that, while the technological implementation of any ban is going to be slow and imperfect, a retail investor capable of working around it is not exactly the person the FCA is most worried about protecting.

DoJ vs. the elusive Mr. McAfee

After decades of intercontinental outrageousness, John McAfee was arrested in Spain for tax evasion. He also faces a suit from the SEC for fraudulent ICO promotion.

McAfee first found success in the 80s at the head of the firm that produces the antivirus software that still bears his name. He left the company in the 90s and has been bouncing around the world more or less ever since, racking up guns, substance addictions, and allegations of sexual assault and murder. Also not paying his taxes, allegedly. He was posted up in Cuba out of the reach of U.S. authorities for a while.

Despite his early successes in technology, McAfee has for decades built a personal brand on foundations of infamy. The SEC’s allegations suggest that he managed to translate that megaphone into millions of dollars by plugging into the curious hypedraulic mechanics of the ICO boom. Earlier this year, he tried to launch a privacy token that he admitted was largely taken from another project. McAfee is hardly what you would call a builder. While everyone is innocent until proven guilty, McAfee’s absence from the crypto scene would be a blessing for the industry’s reputation.

Further reads

The Bank for International Settlements put out a new and extensive report on Central Bank Digital Currencies and the associated risks and prospects.

Tax attorney Jason Freeman runs down the latest memorandum from the IRS on how to get your taxes on virtual assets in order.

Writing for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Rainey Reitman talks problems with the extradition hearings for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Law Decoded: Police and thieves on their screens, Oct 2–9

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