BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil's central bank announced on Monday that it decided to divide the regulatory process for crypto assets and virtual asset service providers into phases, with regulatory proposals expected by the end of this year.
The decision effectively delays the completion of the process following a 2022 law on the issue, which paved the way for subsequent regulation by the central bank.
In a congressional hearing last year, the bank's regulatory director, Otávio Dámaso, had projected that the regulation would be completed by June 2024.
After launching a public consultation on the issue in December 2023, which concluded in January, the central bank said it would now open a new consultation in the second half of this year.
The central bank told Reuters that the first public consultation aimed to gather opinions from society and also address issues not covered by the 2022 law, such as the segregation of assets from virtual asset service providers.
This required “a reasonable dedication of the teams involved in regulatory work,” he said, adding that the diversity of activities carried out by entities in the virtual assets sector and the various structures of these entities required this preliminary effort.
“The second public consultation, now focused on the regulatory texts, aims to use the initial contributions to, once again with broad support from society, establish a solid regulatory framework,” the central bank said.
