As Brazilian legislators deliberate over a proposed bill that seeks to provide robust protection for a significant portion of debtors’ savings, a separate initiative is pushing for the inclusion of cryptocurrencies in the latest version of this legislation.
The bill in question, numbered 4.420/2021 and introduced by Deputy Carlos Bezerra, is currently under consideration by the Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship Committee of the lower house of the Brazilian Parliament. This bill, which aims to amend the 2015 Code of Civil Procedure, is designed to safeguard the private savings of individuals, protecting sums equivalent to up to 40 minimum wages from potential seizure by creditors.
On September 15th, Deputy Felipe Francischini, the rapporteur for the bill, officially endorsed a recently proposed amendment by another Deputy, Fernando Marangoni, which seeks to include cryptocurrency assets among the protected funds. In Francischini’s statement, he noted:
“In today’s financial landscape, people’s investment behavior has evolved, with traditional savings accounts losing ground to other forms of financial investments.”
This incorporation of cryptocurrencies into the bill became possible following the implementation of Brazil’s cryptocurrency regulatory framework in June 2023. The specific language of this amendment references the framework and defines virtual assets as “digital representations of value that can be traded or transferred electronically and utilized for payments or investments.”
It’s worth noting that while Brazil is recognizing cryptocurrencies as legitimate assets, there is also a counterbalancing development. In August, a congressional committee approved amendments to a separate bill that would increase taxes on cryptocurrencies held overseas.