Brazil’s decade-long crypto experiment is about to grow up. The country’s central bank has introduced sweeping measures that will pull digital asset companies into the same orbit as traditional finance, ending years of fast-paced, largely unsupervised growth.
How would people even survive if they weren't suprervised?
While regulators have long discussed digital asset oversight, the real urgency came from one corner of the market — stablecoins. Over the past year, they’ve quietly taken over local trading volumes, with around 90% of all Brazilian crypto flows now linked to fiat-pegged tokens, according to the central bank.
What it sounds like is that regulators and central bankers are pissed that people found a way around their capital controls.
Starting February 2026, crypto exchanges, custodians, and brokers will no longer be able to operate freely. Every firm will need explicit authorization from the Central Bank of Brazil, transforming what was once an open marketplace into a regulated financial ecosystem.Under the new rulebook, companies are expected to meet the same standards applied to banks: robust governance, risk management frameworks, anti-money laundering safeguards, and cybersecurity defenses. It’s a major cultural shift for an industry that has prided itself on independence from the traditional system.Those failing to meet the requirements will have a nine-month grace period before the November 2026 cutoff — after which unlicensed platforms will have to shut down.