Ripio, a digital asset company based in Argentina, has purchased major Brazilian crypto exchange BitcoinTrade. According to Argentinian newspaper Ambito, the acquisition is part of Ripio’s plan to spread across South America. BitcoinTrade is reportedly the second-largest crypto exchange in the country by volume. Ripio CEO and co-founder Sebastián Serrano said it made the purchase to “expand access to the world of digital assets” in the region. "We are convinced that Ripio is the best company to extend the path we are building with BitcoinTrade in Brazil,” said BitcoinTrade founder Carlos Andre Montenegro. Founded in 2013, Ripio claims to be …

Following two years of pilot testing, a blockchain trade and financing platform for global agricultural trading has seen its commercial rollout from Swiss developer Cerealia SA. The launch follows extensive prelaunch trial implementation with firms from Algeria, Brazil, Dubai, Japan and Ukraine. In November 2018, Cointelegraph reported on the platform’s early use to conduct a pilot transaction of Black Sea wheat from the Russian port city of Novorossiysk. Cerealia told reporters that it has sought to address the need for a fast trading platform in the global Russian wheat market and to combine this with a more reliable, transparent and …

Vasco da Gama, one of the leading teams in Brazilian football, and Mercado Bitcoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Latin America, have announced plans to tokenize the rights of the solidarity mechanism of FIFA. The FIFA Solidarity Mechanism is a part of the FIFA Transfer Regulation, which acts as a selling right for a player and encourages clubs to develop young players. Through this mechanism, up to 5% of the total value of each international transfer of an athlete can be shared with all the clubs that an athlete went through during his career until he was 23 …

According to a Wednesday filing, the U.S. Justice Department seized $24 million in virtual currency pursuant to an official request from the Brazilian government. The Department of Justice, or DoJ, said that the government of Brazil requested its assistance in connection to a crypto fraud scheme called “Operation Egypto.” Authorities in the South American nation reported that more than 10,000 Brazilians may have been defrauded from the scheme, in losses estimated at roughly $200 million. The department seized funds connected to Brazilian national Marcos Antonio Fagundes, one of the individuals allegedly involved in the case. According to information that Brazilian …

Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has said that Brazil will issue its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Guedes made the statement on Thursday during a ceremony celebrating the 100 millionth digital savings account opened at Caixa Economica Federal: "Now that the central bank is autonomous again, it’s also amazing in the digital dimension: Pix, OpenBank, fintechs and digital currency. Brazil will have its own digital currency. Brazil is ahead of many countries." This is the first time that the minister has spoken directly on the subject, although he has not provided any further details on the CBDC project …

Brazil's Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, said during an online event this Tuesday that Brazil "is about to" join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and that the Brazilian government has plans to launch a public offering of shares (IPO) for the newly-created digital bank of Caixa Econômica Federal. Caixa Econômica Federal created a digital bank during the pandemic to help the government send financial aid to around 64 million Brazilians. Guedes’ comments came during the Milken Institute Global Conference, during which he said that the Central Bank is working to attract new investors for the country. One …

The world's largest grains and oilseeds companies, American giants Bunge and Cargill, have joined together to create the joint venture Covantis, which will use blockchain technology in the agricultural sector in Brazil. The unprecedented project foresees the exchange of information between all members of Covantis, which also includes the participation of other agribusiness giants such as the French Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), the Chinese state-owned company Cofco International and the Dutch multinational Glencore Agriculture. Together the companies that make up Covantis move around 550 million tons of grains and oilseeds every year. The goal of the partnership is to unify …

A recent YouTube webinar from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security hosted discussion on blockchain's usefulness in several categories, including the fight against corruption. Blockchain's impact on COVID-19 tracing also surfaced during the discussion. A report from Reuters at the beginning of September clarified that the country is not likely to push a mandatory vaccine, while Sept. 9 news reported by MercoPress estimated a 2021 debut date for a COVID-19 shot in the country. Brazil now plans to use a blockchain-based system called the National Health Data Network, or RNDS. Constructed using the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework, the system …

Major meat processing company JBS S.A., has repeatedly come under fire for allegedly contributing to the illegal deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. They are now using blockchain technology to create a unique solution to the problem. According to a Sept. 23 report from Reuters, JBS said it plans to launch a blockchain-based traceability system for its meat supply chain to ensure it does not buy livestock from farms that are known to have illegally felled trees. The company has previously only monitored the final link in the meat supply chain, meaning any of the reportedly 50,000 ranches in Brazil doing …

Regulated Brazilian fund manager Hashdex has inked a deal with Nasdaq to launch the world’s first crypto asset exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX). The stock exchange announced it had approved the ‘Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index’ on September 18, revealing that 3 million Class E shares will be issued for trade on the platform. Cointelegraph Brazil confirmed the Nasdaq partnership and ETF with Hashdex’s chief executive, Marcelo Sampaio According to local media outlet Infomoney, the fund should be live and trading on the BSX by the end of the year. The report notes that Hashdex chose to …

The president of Banco Central — Brazil’s central bank — has announced Brazilians could expect to see a central bank digital currency before 2023. According to a Sept. 2 report from news outlet Correio Braziliense, Brazil could be ready for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2022. Roberto Campos Neto, the president of Banco Central, stated that the country’s central bank had already undertaken measures to modernize the Brazilian financial system which has made a CBDC the natural outcome. The president cited the country’s PIX instant payment system and open banking among those measures. The central bank plans to …

Imagine if it were possible for your identity to be available at any time, where third parties could only access it with your consent. The discourse that everyone has the right to own their digital identity has been gaining momentum around the world. And the path to this is the development of “decentralized digital identity” solutions. What is a self-sovereign identity? Here, it is important to clarify that according to the concept of self-sovereign digital identity, owners (holders) of the digital identity are responsible for the control and management of their data. And that not only includes basic personal data …