Brazil legislated first and regulated later. Law 14,478 of 2022, the Legal Framework for Virtual Assets, defined virtual assets and service providers, created a specific crime of fraud involving virtual assets, and left the operating rules to the designated regulator, which a 2023 decree confirmed as the Banco Central do Brasil, with the CVM keeping jurisdiction over tokens that are securities. The operating rules arrived in November 2025 as a package of BCB resolutions and entered into force on February 2, 2026: virtual asset service providers must obtain central bank authorization under fit-and-proper, capital, governance, and segregation requirements, with transition windows for incumbents, and stablecoin and crypto transactions linked to foreign currency are integrated into the foreign-exchange regulatory perimeter, a globally distinctive move reflecting how dollar-stablecoin flows dominate Brazilian volume.
Brazil is Latin America's largest crypto market, with deep stablecoin usage, a bank-integrated exchange sector, and the Drex tokenized-real central bank project in pilot. Tax policy has churned: proposals in 2025 to replace the monthly exemption with a flat tax on gains generated intense dispute, so current treatment should be checked against the latest Receita Federal guidance before relying on it.
The instruments
Legal Framework for Virtual Assets
Defines virtual assets and VASPs, sets principles of governance, segregation, and consumer protection, criminalizes fraud with virtual assets, and delegates authorization and supervision of non-securities crypto activity to the Banco Central do Brasil.
BCB authorization regime for VASPs
Requires central bank authorization for virtual asset service providers, sets capital, governance, custody, and segregation standards, integrates stablecoin and FX-linked crypto transactions into the foreign-exchange framework, and provides transition periods for firms already operating.