Brazil Finance Chief Delays Controversial Crypto Tax as Election Nears

Brazil’s new finance minister, Dario Durigan, plans to postpone new rules on crypto taxation, Reuters reported Friday (March 20).

These rules are among several controversial tax measures Durigan, who took office Friday, plans to postpone to avoid losing legal capital in Congress ahead of a presidential election scheduled for later this year, according to the report.

The now-delayed public consultation on crypto taxation was planned after Brazil’s central bank adopted a regulation that equate crypto movements with foreign exchange operations, per the report.

CoinDesk reported Monday (March 23) that classifying some crypto transactions as foreign exchange operations would make the transactions subject to tax rates ranging from 0.38% to as high as 3.5%.

Industry groups pushed back against the proposed tax, arguing that the rates would be illegal and unfair and that stablecoins shouldn’t be treated as foreign exchange instruments, according to the report.

Brazil’s central bank said in February that part of the crypto market, especially some stablecoin activity, is subject to foreign exchange rules. That decision gave the country’s Finance Ministry and tax authorities a reason to study whether those transactions are subject to a tax on financial operations, per the report.

In another, separate development in this space, blockchain company Ripple said March 17 that it has undertaken what it calls a major expansion in Brazil. The company also said it plans to seek a virtual asset service provider license with Brazil’s central bank, in line with the country’s new virtual asset regulatory framework.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “2025 Global Digital Shopping Index: Brazil Edition” found that nearly all consumers in Brazil experienced at least one type of payment issue during their latest retail purchase.

Only 1.5% of Brazilian shoppers reported that their recent purchase was completely seamless, in contrast to the global average where 61% of purchases go smoothly, according to the report.

A key driver of the friction in online transactions in Brazil is the unusually high rate of manual payment information entry, as manually inputting credit card numbers or other payment information is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, per the report.