More Than 12,000 Brazilian Companies Reported Record-High Cryptocurrency Holdings

As of August, the number of firms holding cryptocurrency in Brazil has hit new record highs. This comes despite an increasing level of faith in cryptocurrencies as well as high inflation rates.

In August 2022, the country’s taxes authority, Receita Federal do Brasil (RFB), popularly known as the Federal Revenue of Brazil, documented a total of 12,053 distinct entities that had declared cryptocurrency on their financial statements. This information was reported in the local media.

Since July, when there were 11,360 firms with crypto holdings, this figure has increased by 6.1%, making August the month with the greatest reported number of companies with crypto holdings.

According to the RFB’s findings, the most widely held cryptocurrency among institutions is Bitcoin, while the most widely held stablecoin is Tether. However, the number of individual Brazilian investors who held cryptocurrency dropped from the previous month to 1.3 million in August, reflecting a continuing downward trend.

The value of the total declarations also experienced a slight decline, most likely due to the condition of the cryptocurrency markets, with a total of $2.1 billion (11 billion Brazilian reals) being reported in August, which is a decrease from the $3.4 billion that was reported in July. 

Cryptocurrencies Enjoy the Support of Brazilians

The highest value was traded using the stablecoin USDT, tied to the United States dollar. During August, over $1.42 billion worth of USDT changed hands over almost 80,000 transactions, with an average transaction value of around $17,500.

BTC came in second place with a total of approximately $270 million transacted. Still, it led the pack regarding the number of transactions, clocking in over 2.1 million in the same month at an average transaction value far lower than $130.

Between July and August, it was seen that the stablecoin USD Coin fell from third to fifth in relation to the value of transactions conducted, falling behind Ether and the Brazilian Digital Token (BRZ), which is an ERC-20 token tied to the Brazilian real.

According to the “Crypto Pulse” research published by Bitstamp in September, Brazilians’ faith in cryptocurrencies continues to be rather high, with 77% of respondents reporting that they trusted digital assets.

Multiple financial organizations around the nation have begun providing cryptocurrency-related services, such as the brokerage behemoth XP Inc. and the payment application PicPay, which both integrated bitcoin exchange services in August. Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, has also ramped up its operations in the nation, increasing the size of its workforce there since March and launching two new offices on October 4.

According to the country’s statistics office data, Brazil’s inflation rate reached a 26-year high of 12.1% in April but has since cooled somewhat to 8.7% in the current August estimates.