Rio De Janeiro, Brazil’s most populous city, is taking major strides towards becoming a global crypto hub. Rio will become the first Brazilian city to accept property tax (IPTU) payments in crypto, starting in 2023.
Binance to open an office in Rio
The proposal was first made in January by Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio. Mayor Paes has now confirmed that the proposal has been adopted during Criptoatividade Carioca, an event organized by the municipal secretariats of Finance and Planning, and Economic Development, Innovation and Simplification.
During the event, secretaries Pedro Paulo and Chicão Bulhões also presented the report of the CriptoRio study. The study was carried out by a designated working group established at the beginning of the year to evaluate Rio’s plan to invest 1% of the city’s treasury in crypto and to create the city’s cryptocurrency.
Soon, Cariocas will be able to pay taxes such as IPTU in crypto. And we have already analyzed the possibility of investing 1% of the treasury resources there as well, Paes commented via a tweet.
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For his part, Rio’s Secretary of Economic Development, Innovation, and Simplification, Chicão Bulhões, noted that the move is aimed at tapping into the development that crypto investments can bring for the further development of Rio’s economy.
During the event, the city also announced the creation of the Crypto investment Committee which will continue its work from where the CryptoRio report stopped, to pave the way for 2023.
Meanwhile, the city’s openness to the crypto industry has already been paying dividends. Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, announced that the global crypto exchange will be establishing a base of operations in the city. CZ stated that the move is a direct result of an agreement he reached with the city’s mayor during his visit nine days ago where he was also handed a key to the city.
9 days ago, I made a handshake deal with mayor @eduardopaes. Rio De Janeiro will accept crypto for tax payments, and @Binance will open an office in Rio. He’s done his part. We are working on ours. https://t.co/HPJONtBfQ8
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) March 26, 2022
Crypto adoption in Latin America
Talks of adoption of crypto, and especially Bitcoin as legal tender, in Latin America have been spreading rapidly. Since El Salvador made Bitcoin legal tender last year, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Panama, Mexico, and Cuba have started considering adopting cryptocurrencies as official legal tender. Late last year, Brazil’s Deputy also proposed crypto as payment option for workers.
According to Entrepreneur, the allure for the countries has been in achieving financial inclusion for unbanked citizens, as well as cutting down on the cost of remittance – a major source of the countries’ income.
Indira Kempis, a Mexican Senator, also highlighted these as the reason for her presentation of a bill in the Mexican parliament that proposes for the country to make Bitcoin legal tender.
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