Japanese bank holding and financial services company Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) said it will use Ripple (XRP) to create a new cross-border payments service to Brazil in a press release Nov. 9. MUFG, which has demonstrated an increasing interest in cryptocurrency products, will partner with Brazil’s Banco Bradesco to create the platform through its local subsidiary Banco MUFG Brasil. Confirming the two parties had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), MUFG reiterated its faith in Ripple’s technology, after joining its global payments steering group in March last year. “The new payment system [...] will assist the banks as …

Brazilian law enforcement has solicited the help of Bahamian authorities to investigate suspicious transactions to Deltec Bank & Trust – the recently-announced new banking partner of controversial stablecoin Tether (USDT) – major Brazilian newspaper O Globo reports Nov. 6. As per the report, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in São Paulo is on the trail of Paulo Vieira de Souza, a former director of the São Paulo road infrastructure company DERSA. De Souza is currently being prosecuted for bribery in the infamous Odebrecht case, characterized by the U.S. government as “the largest foreign bribery case in history.” As explained by …

The Department of Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB), which administers tax collection in the country, is seeking to receive monthly reports on crypto assets operations, according to a document released by the RFB Tuesday, Oct. 30. In the paper, the RFB has announced that Brazil-based crypto exchanges are now obliged to send them detailed reports on all crypto-related operations on monthly basis. For instance, the companies have to reveal the amounts of transactions and the identity of the customers. Moreover, both legal entities and individuals residing in Brazil are now obliged to report all the transactions they have carried out …

Two major Brazilian banks have reopened the banking accounts of one of the local crypto exchanges experiencing banking issues recently, local crypto outlet Portal do Bitcoin reports Wednesday, Oct. 31. The preliminary decision to reopen accounts in major banks Banco do Brasil and Santander Brasil for local crypto exchange Bitcoin Max was granted by the Federal District Court. The judge ruled that the mentioned banks failed to notify the exchange of account closure, which was treated as “abusive conduct” violating consumer protection rules. The court then ordered to unlock the accounts within five days. In case of non-compliance with the …

Multinational holding conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway – which counts outspoken crypto critic Warren Buffett as its CEO and chairman – has invested around $600 million in two fintech payment firms focused on emerging markets, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Oct. 29. Both investments are said to have been spearheaded by one of Berkshire’s two portfolio managers, Todd Combs. In August, Berkshire is reported to have bought a roughly $300 million stake in the parent company of Paytm, India’s largest mobile-payments service. The second investment was made just this past week, through the purchase of shares in an initial public offering …

Fernando Haddad, the presidential candidate for the Brazil Workers’ Party, has published his government plan via blockchain, per an announcement published on his website Oct. 14. According to the release, Haddad decided to use blockchain technology for disseminating information about his presidential campaign after a long-term struggle with fake news reports. As information stored on a blockchain cannot be altered or compromised, he decided to store the data on a decentralized platform. The release also notes that Haddad used “free software” in Sao Paulo where he served as mayor from 2013–2017. The software solutions monitored various city projects, including the …

The highest number of recorded incidents of Coinhive cryptojacking software have taken place in Brazil, Iran’s country’s cybersecurity authority revealed in a report Monday, October 8. According to the Iranian authority’s report on malware in 2017, Brazil, the country with the most reported cases, has been hit over 81,000 times by Coinhive. India came in second with around 29,000, followed by Indonesia with more than 23,000, while Iran scored about 11,000. Coinhive, the cryptocurrency mining software which mines Monero (XMR), provides an Application Programming Interface (API) to developers, which then lets the developer use a website visitors’ CPU resources to …

Brazil’s antitrust regulator has sent a questionnaire to crypto exchanges whose banks accounts have previously been closed, major Brazilian financial newspaper Valor Economico reports Tuesday, October 2. The Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), operated by the local Ministry of Justice, sent the questionnaire to ten companies: Bitcoin Market, Bitcambio, BitcoinTrade, Foxbit, Walltime, Braziliex, BitBlue, Open Digital Capital (OTC), e-juno, and Profitfy. The move comes shortly after CADE launched a probe into six major banks to find out whether they had closed accounts for crypto exchanges. The initial request, sent by the Brazilian Association of Cryptomoedas and Blockchain (ABCB), …

The largest brokerage in Brazil will enter the crypto space by launching an exchange for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) in the near future, Bloomberg reported September 21. Chief Executive Officer of Grupo XP Guilherme Benchimol told Bloomberg that the company will launch an exchange called XDEX in the coming months, with around forty employees. Grupo XP is the biggest financial group in Brazil, comprising companies with various business models. XP has reportedly set a goal to have $1 trillion reais ($245 billion) under custody by 2020, which is four times what the company expects to raise by the end …

Albert Heijn, Holland’s largest supermarket chain, has revealed it is using blockchain to make the production chain of its orange juice transparent, International Supermarket News reports September 21. Albert Heijn will reportedly launch the new blockchain system in partnership with its supplier, Refresco. To give customers’ maximum information about the source of Albert Heijn’s own-brand “sustainable” product, they will be able to scan a QR code on the orange juice carton that will trace the end-to-end route of its production, from Brazil to the Netherlands. The system will reportedly store data that reveals the quality and sustainability ratings held by …

Brazil’s antitrust regulator is reportedly inspecting six major national banks for alleged monopolistic practices in the crypto space, Reuters reports September 18. Brazil’s antitrust regulator, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), which operates under the Ministry of Justice (MJ), has purportedly launched a probe on Tuesday to find out whether the country’s largest banks closed the accounts of brokerages trading in Bitcoin. According to Reuters, the investigation by the CADE was initiated on the request of the Brazilian Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Association (ABCB) following several complaints. One alleged that Banco do Brasil closed the account of local crypto trading …

The Union Cabinet of India has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the collaborative research of distributed ledger technology (DLT), local news outlet ANI reported September 12. The Union Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in India consisting of cabinet ministers and led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi. The MOU, which is a cooperative initiative under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, aims to foster better understanding of DLT and define areas where the technology can be deployed to improve operational efficiency. The research will be jointly conducted by the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and banks from …