Brazilian lawmakers seek to add crypto to debtors’ protected assets list

As Brazilian lawmakers discuss the bill that would grant strong protection to a sizable portion of the savings assets of debtors, a separate initiative is seeking to include crypto in the latest version of the bill. 

Bill number 4.420/2021, authored by Deputy Carlos Bezerra, is currently being considered by the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Committee of the lower chamber of the Brazilian Parliament. Amending the Code of Civil Procedure, issued in 2015, it aims to protect the private savings of individuals up to an amount equal to 40 minimum wages from potential seizure on behalf of their creditors.

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On Sept. 15, the bill’s rapporteur, Deputy Felipe Francischini, officially confirmed its agreement with a recent amendment suggestion from another Deputy, Fernando Marangoni, to include crypto assets in the list of protected funds. According to Francischini’s note:

“Nowadays, people’s investment behavior changed, with the traditional savings account losing ground to other forms of financial investment.”

Such inclusion became possible after the Brazilian crypto framework came into effect in June 2023. The current amendment refers specifically to this framework, defining virtual assets as “digital representations of value that can be traded or transferred via electronic means and used for making payments or investments.”

Acknowledgment of crypto as real money has an opposite side in Brazil. In August, a congressional committee approved amendments to a bill that would raise taxes on cryptocurrencies held overseas.

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