Bits and Borders

Seamus Rocca is CEO of Xapo Bank, which has been a pioneer in the realm of "bitcoin banking" for 10 years since being founded by the iconic Argentine entrepreneur and bitcoin promoter Wences Casares. In this episode, we talk about how the iconic company has transformed itself into a full-service bitcoin native banking operation for global clients You can connect with Seamus on Linkedin...

Alexandre Vasarhelyi is the chief investment officer at BLP Crypto, which is Brazil's oldest crypto-native investment fund. In this episode we discuss CVM Resolution 175, which streamlines the process for Brazilian investment funds keen allocate into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. You can connect with Alexandre on Linkedin 🚀 Sign up for the 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report newsletter for analysis,...

The co-founder of ONG Bitcoin Argentina and the CEO of Bitso Argentina discuss what the Javier Milei presidential administration could mean for the country's crypto economy You can connect with Daniel and Julian on Linkedin 🚀 Sign up for the 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report newsletter for analysis, interviews and market intelligence ⁠⁠⁠https://newsletter.brazilcrypto.io/⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Brazil Crypto R...

Sebastian Serrano is the CEO of Ripio, one of Latin America's largest and longest-running crypto exchanges. In this episode, we discuss Javier Milei's surprise victory in Argentina's presidential election. Serrano argues that Milei is not necessarily a "bitcoiner" or even "pro-bitcoin", but rather his libertarian views and Austrian school economics background overla...

Thomas Bohner is the CEO of Credix, which is a decentralized credit marketplace that connects institutional investors with fintechs and non-bank lenders in Brazil and Latin America. The company now enables more than 10,000 small borrowers, primarily in Brazil but also in Colombia and Mexico, to access US$40 million in loans that would have otherwise been unattainable or unaffordable. Thomas’ ambit...

Kim Grauer is the director of research at Chainalysis, where she authors the blockchain analytics firm's annual Geography of Cryptocurrency report. This report is the most comprehensive analysis of crypto usage and adoption around the world, and provides incredible insights into the growing crypto economy in Brazil and Latin America. We discuss the methodology behind the report and Kim's k...

Michael Coscetta is chief revenue officer at Paxos, a blockchain and digital asset infrastructure platform valued at US$2.4 billion as of its last fundraise in 2021. In this episode, we discuss Paxos's enterprise infrastructure solutions that cater to large, regulated financial companies by offering services like white label stablecoins, tokenization, custody and trading. We also discuss why B...

Daniel de Paiva Gomes is an attorney and one of the leading experts on crypto taxation issues in the Brazilian market. In this episode, we discuss why Brazil's taxation regime for cryptocurrencies is one of the most developed in the world, and why concerns over a new piece of tax legislation moving through Congress are likely overstated You can connect with Daniel on Linkedin 🚀 Sign up for th...

Lucas Giorgio and Matheus Moura are on the founding team at BRLA Digital , which is building solutions for onboarding new crypto users in the Brazilian market, including BRLA, a new BRL-pegged stablecoin. We discuss why the team pivoted away from building a CVM-regulated crypto fund in favor of creating a stablecoin, the challenges foreign companies face when looking to onboard Brazilian users and...

João Aragão Pereira is a senior technology specialist at Microsoft, focusing on financial services in Latin America. João has been heavily involved in the architecture of Brazilian Central Bank's Drex CBDC project, as well as other CBDC projects being developed by other countries around the world. In this episode, we discuss Microsoft's involvement in Drex, particularly how its Regulated L...

A special congressional committee investigating cryptocurrency pyramids (known as the CPI) officially concluded this week with a scathing report urging the indictment of four Binance executives. The alleged crimes include fraudulent management, operating an unauthorized financial institution and crimes against the the financial system, among others. To help us better understand the committee’s rec...

Alexandre is CEO of Sonica, a no-code platform for building and deploying Web3 products. We discuss the growing popularity of no-code platforms, the need for such tooling in the world of Web3, the product market fit of NFTs and loyalty tokens when used correctly, and why he isn't concerned about the current downturn in the NFT market You can connect with Alexandre on Linkedin 🚀 Sign up for th...

Dan Yamamura is a partner at Fuse Capital, a Web3 venture firm based out of Rio de Janeiro. In this special Portuguese language crossover episode with Felipe Cabral of the Let's Crypto Podcast, we talk to Dan about his Web3 investment outlook during this bear market, how Fuse its sticking to its core principles instead of chasing easy money, and he why he's decided to focus on Brazil speci...

Jean-Michel Guillot is head of product for blockchain and digital assets at Dinamo Networks, a digital security firm that provides the cryptographic solutions used in PIX and other payments technology. In this episode, recorded onsite at Blockchain Rio in September, we discuss Dinamo's role in the Drex pilot, in securing 150 million Pix transactions per day and in its broader play across crypt...

Nesse especial episodio "crossover" do Brazil Crypto Report e Let's Crypto, Felipe e eu falamos con Rodrigoh Henriques - director da innovação do Fenasbac. Rodrigoh e o equipe dele tem sido muito envolvido nas todas areas da innovação financeira promulgado pelo Banco Central do Brasil - comecando com Open Finance, Pix e agora Drex. Rodrigoh discuta o papel do Fenasbac e o LIFT Challe...

Taynaah Reis is a Brazilian coder, entrepreneur and activist. In this episode, we discuss how she learned to code at 12 years old, started her first company at 16, and her various entrepreneurial initiatives making use of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. These include Moeda Seeds - a crypto-powered microcredit platform that was one of the first crypto projects in Brazil, financia...

Robert Materazzi is CEO of Lukka, which is a unicorn crypto data services company valued at US$1.3 billion. After starting as “Turbotax for Crypto” product 10 years ago that helped retail crypto holders figure out their tax obligations, Lukka has built itself into a unicorn enterprise crypto data services company offering institutional-grade accounting, audit and data products. In this conversatio...

This episode recaps the top stories in the Brazil crypto market from Sept 11-15, 2023 Articles discussed here include: - "Binance says it is a “victim” of pyramids; CPI wants a list of the brokerage’s 700 biggest clients" via Portal do Bitcoin - "Coinbase to push for ‘global consensus’ on crypto rules through G20 in Brazil" via The Block - "Brazil has fallen in the global...

Daniel Lynch is head of Metamask Institutional partnerships at Consensys and also looks after sales and business development for Brazil and Latam. In this episode, we discuss the results of a recent survey conducted by Consensys exploring Brazilians' attitudes towards Web3, and adoption for both Metamask and Metamask Institutional in Brazil ------------- Be sure to take a look at Consensys&#39...

Marcos Viriato is CEO of Parfin, a leading Web3 and blockchain infrastructure firm in Latin America. A former partner at BTG Pactual, Marcos believes that mass institutional adoption of crypto and blockchain-based assets will need to occur on permissioned networks and solutions. With its Parfin Terminal, tokenization, and MPC and crypto-as-a-service offerings, Parfin is providing this infrastructu...

AWS and Antonio dissect the week's biggest stories from the Brazil crypto universe. Stories in this week's episode include: - Central Bank announces that the rollout of crypto regulations will be delayed until the first half of 2024 - First Drex testnet transaction executed ; onboarding woes continue - Hashdex enters the US bitcoin ETF race with clever backdoor maneuver - CVM (Brazil's...

Maria Gabriela Damiani is a Technical Advisor to the President at the Commissão dos Valores Imobiliários (CVM), also known as the Brazilian version of the SEC. In this episode we discuss the CVM's approach to digital asset regulation and how it differs from the approaches take by other countries. We also dive into some thorny discussion topics such as the line between investor protection and c...

Mayra Siqueira is the Brazil community manager for the Algorand Foundation. In this episode we discuss Mayra's trajectory from journalism, to being Binance's first employee in Brazil and then ultimately to working on Algorand - a Layer 1 blockchain developed by renowned computer scientist and Turing Award winner Silvio Micali We discuss the variety of use cases and applications being built...

On this edition of the BCR Weekly Recap, AWS and co-host Antonio Neto look at the week's big stories, including: the Brazilian Central Bank's surprise announcements that it will suspend its Lift Lab accelerator program and delay the first phase of its Digital Real (Drex) pilot by three months Binance's launch of Binance Pay in Brazil and cancelation of its debit card partnership with M...

Bruno Ramos de Sousa is head of US and Europe at Hashdex, one of the largest crypto asset managers in the world that offers ETFs and other exchange traded products in several markets. Contrary to the prevailing market narrative that a bitcoin ETF approval in the US is imminent, Bruno argues that landscape in the US has not fundamentally changed despite recent filings by Blackrock and other large T...