More than 41,000 Brazilian companies now trade with crypto

The adoption of bitcoin (BTC) and crypto in South America seems a lot further than in the Western world. New information from the Brazilian tax authority, the so-called Receita Federal, shows that more than 41,000 Brazilian companies are active with crypto coins.

What does this mean?

Being active with crypto is of course a vague expression. According to the Brazilian tax authorities, there are currently 41,817 companies in the country that regularly transact with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. However, it is not clear why they do this exactly.

There is a chance that companies hold part of their reserves in bitcoin to protect themselves against inflation. Inflation in Brazil also shot up to more than 10 percent this year. At the moment, inflation there is also starting to cool down a bit and has now fallen to 6.47 percent.

Particularly striking is the increase in the number of companies that perform transactions with crypto. Where there were still 37,741 companies in August, this rose to 40,161 in September and the counter now stands at 41,817 companies. In that respect, adoption in Brazil is on the rise.

Brazil legalizes crypto as a means of payment

Adoption in Brazil began to gain traction after new rules came in August 2019 on how Brazilian companies should handle crypto in their accounting. This laid the foundations that led to new legislation that was recently passed. Brazil legalized crypto as a means of payment last week.

It is quite possible that many parties have started thinking about this and have decided to connect part of their company to the crypto world. Viewed over 2022, that was not a very intelligent choice, because the prices have fallen sharply this year.

However, measured from 2019, the bitcoin price has risen explosively. Ultimately, it is a matter of zooming out and companies themselves have to consider whether they believe in the future of crypto. Given the number of companies actively trading crypto in Brazil, that confidence seems high at the moment.