Brazil’s cryptocurrency companies decided to no longer wait for regulatory projects in the sector and launch their own self-regulatory document. With the discussions “debated” in Congress, the members of the Brazilian Cryptoeconomics Association (ABCripto) decided to unite and launch their own set of rules.
Thus, the Code of Self-Regulation of the sector was presented. To get an idea of the scope of the measure, the exchanges that are part of ABCripto account for approximately 80% of the volume of transactions with digital assets in the country.
Self-regulation in Brazil increases legal certainty
“The goal of the Self-Regulation Code is to collaborate with the improvement of operational practices by companies and suitability with compliance standards, helping to fill the regulatory gap in the industry and increase user’s protection mechanisms and legal certainty”, said the association’s executive director, Safiri Felix, according to CoinTelegraph.
But the sector in Brazil is not only shaped by self-regulation. Although official regulations remain in the House of Representatives, cryptocurrency companies already follow the operational standards of Normative Instruction 1888/2019 of the Internal Revenue Service, as reminded by Felix. Therefore, the new code will complement those rules.
Besides, according to Felix’s assessment, the points of self-regulation will ensure an environment of free, fair and correct competition.
Regulation in Brazil has been debated since 2015
In June 2019, the House of Representatives created a special committee to review rules for digital currencies. That regulation was in a 2015 bill, which was filed in January last year. However, there has not yet been a final decision.
The new regulations will make the cryptocurrency industry adopting standards for policies such as “know your customer (KYC)” and “know your transaction (KYT)”. According to CoinTelegraph, these policies help preventing digital assets from being misused, as well as enabling information to be sent to the Financial Activities Control Board (Coaf).
Another positive aspect of self-regulation is that it brings the Brazilian crypto market closer to entities such as FATF. The complex acronym represents the international body that combats money laundering and terrorism financing.
