New Brazilian Crypto Regulations Could Lead to 6 Years in Prison for Theft

Anyone catch this news? I just noticed they also introduced a law a few hours ago to make crypto payments legal.

Well, the crime of embezzlement exists and is punishable in most countries in the world, if not all, because I do not know the casuistry of each country. The penalties imposed are a bit high, I would say. I'm fine with it, legalizing payment with cryptocurrencies and imposing penalties on those who defraud seems fair to me.

I just read it and I'm glad that for once, the intended targets are actually the exchanges [as opposed to customers], but it would've been better if there was also an approval for the asset segregation clause [it could've provided better protection for newcomers or those who have a habit of keeping their funds in such platforms]. You have a point, but I don't think it applies to digital assets in most cases.

Since the collapse of the FTX exchange, many countries drafted several new rules and laws against crypto companies operating in their respective jurisdictions, the current example of Brazil, we know Brazil currently has several crypto exchanges, for example: Binance alone has two offices in Brazil operating at the moment. From the news/sources that you display here, the steps for the Bill from the Brazilian authorities, in my opinion, are only one, namely: Nothing more, Brazil cares about crypto users especially its people stay safe, they want to protect their people against problematic crypto foam, care about the bill.

Curiously asset segregation was refused by the congressmen. I suspect it could be because if they approved that, the number of exchanges allowed in the brazilian territory would be too restricted, because I doubt a considerable number of exchanges would agree with this requirement. Anyway, Binance announced the nephew of the new Minister of Economy from the new government Lula, which is going to take control tomorrow, as general manager of the company in Brazil. It was a clear political movement from Binance in Brazil.

You have a point, but I think only small exchanges will be affected by asset segregation and honestly, it'd be better if they didn't operate in the space [they shouldn't offer exchange services if they have to solely rely on customer assets to maintain a normal operation for a long period]... I read a few articles before and from what I understood, most of the impact would be toward future products that they'd be offering to customers [e.g. limits for its development and etc...], as opposed to the normal exchange of assets into other forms.

I believe that's fine! When a legal framework is being provided for crypto payments, they must look at the other side of the story as well. Unless an appropriate legal provision is available, it's becomes somewhat easy for the frauds to play with the law to decrease the severity of their punishment. So what the Brazilian government is doing, is fine! They are providing appropriate legal provisions to punish the fraudsters. I definitely welcome this!

I actually didn't think about that, but it makes sense. I wonder what Malta will gonna do about the same issues, since they are kinda the strongest in EU regarding the crypto framework.

The EU has a legal framework for crypto crimes including Malta as a member state, called the 4th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD4). While malta is notoriously more crypto-industry-friendly, it doesn't also get special "concession" treatment. Even (imo) malta will have more scrutiny.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/brazil-s-oldest-bank-allows-residents-to-pay-off-tax-bill-with-crypto Brazil’s oldest bank allows residents to pay their taxes using crypto The move will allow Brazilian taxpayers to easily settle their tax liabilities while expanding “access” to the digital asset ecosystem. According to a statement published by Brazilian bank Banco do Brasil on Feb. 11, it is now “possible” for Brazilian taxpayers to pay their tax bill with crypto in a joint initiative with Brazilian-based crypto firm Bitfy.