On December 28, CoinBR received a notification warning about his disconnect from the cooperative Sicoob Coopercredi. The act happens on the argument that CoinBR activities have no compatibility with the cooperative aim. The Sicoob Coopercredi describes the incompatibility as the trade of “virtual currency” that still not regulated by Brazilian Central Bank. With the disconnection CoinBR had important bank accounts closed and a great impact in the business.
Defending CoinBR, the Brazilian Association of Crypto and Blockchain (ABCB, in Portuguese initial), issued a petition on January 16. ABCB affirms that the cooperative interpreted the absence of regulation with the illegality of the activity. Therefore, the association filed an administrative proceeding at the Administrative Council for Economic Defense.
The cooperative affirms to act in accordance with policies on Anti Money Laundry and Counter-Terrorism Financing. However, they did not specify how the Brazilian exchange did not comply with such guidelines. The ABCB classifies the allegations of Sicoob Coopercredi as unilateral and unfounded.
The clash between Brazilians banks and exchanges
According to ABCB, the actions of Sicoob Coopercredi aims to eliminate the free competition of the exchange with traditional financial institutions. The cooperative used the Brazilian unregulated crypto market scene as a gap to attack the CoinBR. Unlike many Central Banks through the world, the Brazilian Central Bank still not moving to develop a regulation to the internal crypto market. The Dutch Central Bank, for example, recently announced that is working to create a regulation to Netherland applying AML and CTF policies.
The arguments of traditional financial institutions always uses regulatory gaps and alleged vulnerabilities in the cryptocurrencies. However, the Netflix series Dirty Money, exhibit numerous frauds committed by traditional financial institutions. Despite the vulnerabilities, frauds using cryptocurrencies do not come even close to the volume practiced by some traditional financial institutions.
The Brazilian crypto news portal Portal do Bitcoin reported the action of the cooperative against the CoinBR at January 20.
