Bits and Borders

Fábio Plein is regional managing director for the Americas at Coinbase, where he overseas the exchange's operations in Canada, Brazil and the rest of the region outside of the US. In this conversation, we discuss Coinbase's go-to-market and expansion plans for Brazil, its approach to navigating Brazil's regulatory environment and Fabio's previous experience operationalizing Uber in...

Vugar Usi is the Chief Operating Officer of Bitget, which is one of the world's largest crypto exchanges - most recognized for its partnership with football superstar Lionel Messi. In this conversation, we discuss Bitget's push to expand its presence in Brazil and Latin America in 2024 You can connect with Vugar on Linkedin 🚀 Sign up for the 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report newsletter for analysis,...

Fábio Araujo is an economist and engineer at the Central Bank of Brazil, where he serves as the coordinator of the Drex project. Drex is an ambitious hybrid wholesale/retail CBDC and tokenization platform that, if it proves successful, will be the infrastructure for a tokenized economy in Brazil. In this interview, Araujo provides a comprehensive overview of the project and its ambitions, while gi...

Guto Antunes is head of digital assets at Itaú, which is Brazil's largest bank. In this episode, we discuss talk about the bank's four-pronged strategy to digital assets in 2024. This touches tokenization, custody, the recently launched ion crypto brokerage and the Drex CBDC project. You can connect with Guto on Linkedin 🚀 Sign up for the 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report newsletter for analysis, in...

Rafael Castaneda is a computer scientist, professor, community builder and self-described "techno-philosopher" sitting at the intersection of technology, ethics and futurism. He is the founder and host of the popular "Casta Crypto" channel and the Casta Guild, which provides Web3 training and education for its members. In this expansive conversation we discuss how crypto enable...

Rocelo Lopes is a veteran bitcoin miner, payments executive and one of Brazil Crypto Report's 2023 Most Influential selections. In this episode, we discuss his experience operating Latam's first commercial bitcoin mining operation in Paraguay, and his current project Smartpay - which allows users to send and receive payments in USDT using Brazil's popular Pix instant payment network. Y...

Helo Passos is the CEO and founder of Trexx, a startup dedicated to fostering blockchain game development and communities in Brazil. Previously, she built Latin America’s largest Axie Infinity community - which comprised 30,000 members at its peak. Helo was named to BCR’s 🏆 Top 10 Most Influential list for 2023 for her contributions to building and advancing Brazil’s blockchain gaming space. 🚀 S...

In this episode, we reveal the results of our 2023 Most Influential Series. With your input, we identified the 10 individuals who had the most impact on the Brazil crypto and digital asset world in 2023. 🚀 Sign up for the 🇧🇷Brazil Crypto Report newsletter for analysis, interviews and market intelligence ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://newsletter.brazilcrypto.io/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Brazil Crypto Report across the...

Alessandro Rossi Martins is a partner at Machado Meyer Advogados, where she looks after the firm's crypto and fintech practice. In this episode, we discuss the Brazilian Central Bank's public consultation for crypto asset regulation, which was released Thursday, December 14. We dive into the content, objectives and next steps of the BC's rulemaking process for regulating crypto markets...

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...