The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Brazil is planning on introducing changes to the regulatory framework applicable to the crypto market in the country.
The proposed changes from the SEC come after a new board was appointed and the crypto activities in the country have also seen a significant amount of growth.
Change in the legal framework
The Brazilian SEC has raised some concerns about the current crypto regulatory framework that exists in the country.
The regulatory body stated that the bill implemented in the country does not recognize tokens as digital assets or securities.
Therefore, these assets do not come under the oversight of the SEC. Thus, the regulatory organization is looking to make changes to the legal framework applicable to cryptocurrencies in Brazil.
This would allow them to ensure that they can cover any regulatory gap that may exist. Moreover, the legislatures in Brazil have also been working on developing regulations to oversee the crypto space.
After contemplating introducing crypto regulations for years, the Brazilian Senate had finally given its approval for the final version of the crypto bill this year in April.
Once the final edits of the bill are finished, it will be sent to the country’s president in order to be signed into law.
The crypto bill
The cryptocurrency bill in question defines virtual assets as digital ones that have value and can be transferred and traded electronically.
Other crypto regulatory provisions have also been mentioned in the bill, which includes the anti-money laundering (AML) and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) policies.
According to the bill, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be treated as non-securities, but there is still ongoing debate about the classification of other tokens.
The Brazilian SEC does not believe that the crypto bill covers every area that needs to be covered. It wants changes to be made to the bill for providing a clear definition of virtual assets.
The conflict
Legislators believe that sending the bill to the Brazilian president is the best course of action they should take at this point.
The president would determine the role that the SEC and the Brazilian central bank would play when it comes to giving approval for initial coin offerings (ICOs) and for ensuring oversight of the crypto space.
However, some legislators are not in agreement with this move because they believe it would only create legal uncertainty.
Therefore, they have said that a new cryptocurrency bill should be introduced in Brazil that should take the proposals put forward by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into account.
It should be noted that this is not the only crypto bill that has been sent to the Brazilian Congress. Another crypto-related bill had also been introduced in Congress back in June.
That particular bill was related to the approval of cryptocurrencies as a payment method. It is also aimed at protecting the private keys of users from being seized by the court.
These developments come in light of the expanding crypto market in Brazil.
