#151: Hashdex teams up with Coinbase on ETH staking

Plus: Ripple joins FENASBAC NEXT Accelerator; Solana partners with Genezys on blockchain for fund managment

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Olá pessoal!

Greetings from Chicago and welcome back to ????Brazil Crypto Report for the week of July 29 - August 2, 2024!

Crypto markets look pretty ugly right now so please be careful out there. On the bright side, this will probably be your last chance to get a good price on the majors if you have the nerve to the buy the dip!

I’ll be back in Brazil this week after a month of travel. Excited to be back and reconnect with folks the rest of this month.

??What’s in BCR this week?

• Hashdex partners with Coinbase on Ethereum staking
• Ripple teams up with Fenasbac’s NEXT Accelerator
• Solana partners with Genezys to bring blockchain to investment funds

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

-AWS

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??New podcast!

This week I talk to Luca Prosperi and Joao Reginatto about M^0 Labs , which is the most interesting stablecoin project of 2024 by far.

Rather than creating a token that simply serves as a wrapper on the US banking sector and consolidates power with a single issuer, M^0 is building an ecosystem that allows multiple issuers to issue a fungible cryptodollar by locking up eligible collateral.

The project has raised upwards of US$60 million over the last 18 months from blue chip investors like Pantera Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, ParaFi Capital, Galaxy, GSR and more.

What’s more exciting is that the team has all the right credentials that you’d want in someone who’s taking on the incumbent stablecoin market. Luca was a core contributor in the MakerDAO ecosystem for many years, while Jo?o spent nearly a decade at Circle where he built USDC. Many of the other core contributors are also stablecoin veterans of the stablecoin who know intimately the pain points and opportunities in the market.

Be sure to tune into this one because M^0 will definitely be a project to watch in the coming months.

?? You can find ????Brazil Crypto Report content wherever you listen to podcasts: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon | Anchor | YouTube

Hashdex teams up with Coinbase on ETH staking infrastructure

The exchange will provide Ethereum staking infrastructure for several funds operated by the Brazilian asset manager, including its market leading HASH11 ETF product in Brazil. CEO Marcelo Sampaio said in a statement:

“Coinbase’s time in the industry, its strong track record as a reliable and secure infrastructure provider, and its history of pioneering new solutions make it not only an easy choice to support our ETFs, but also a long-term strategic partner , as we continue to navigate this rapidly changing industry.”

The collaboration builds on an initial May 2021 investment made by Coinbase Ventures.

Fabio Tonetto Plein , Coinbase ’s Brazil country director, added:

“We are proud to be chosen as a partner by Hashdex and to contribute to the expansion of the investment market linked to cryptoeconomics through the complete Coinbase Prime service platform. The trust in our services is the result of our efforts to establish a safe environment so that the crypto asset market can develop further.”

CoinTelegraph Brasil BeinCrypto

Ripple partners with Fenasbac’s NEXT Accelerator

Ripple has signed on as a partner to the NEXT Accelerator, which is operated by the National Federation of Central Bank Servers’ Associations (Fenasbac). Brazil is to date the only country in which Ripple has made such targeted investment decisions.

NEXT is the largest financial innovation accelerator program in Brazil. It provides guidance, mentorship, resources and investment opportunities for early stage fintechs with growth potential.

Ripple will sponsor two participating startups that use blockchain technology in areas such as treasury management, loan origination and acquisition, and payments for asset tokenization. Silvio Pegado , managing director for Latam, said:

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Fenasbac and empower Brazilian startups that leverage blockchain technology to tackle real-world financial challenges.”

CoinTelegraph Brasil BeinCrypto

Solana partners with Genezys to bring blockchain to investment funds

The idea is to use the Solana blockchain to build infrastructure for Brazilian asset and wealth management space, with the end goal of increasing efficiency and reducing operating costs for fund managers, custodians and administrators operating in the country.

Genezys is a Brazilian fintech that develops back-end technology for these types of funds. It already has R$1 billion (US$200 million) in committed funds.

Richard Warrior , CEO of Genezys , says the partnership will help to reduce inefficiency, fraud and compliance and security failures:

“Genezys has always been committed to offering solutions that improve the financial market through technology. With the Solana partnership, we will build a complete infrastructure for the market using the fastest, most economical and scalable blockchain in the world, which is already being used in the financial sector by Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Stripe, among others."

Diego Dias , Head of Latam at Solana Foundation , said in a statement:

"We will lead this movement by creating a complete operational network to meet key end-to-end market needs, eliminating most existing inefficiencies and driving greater efficiency and security. We are very excited to collaborate with Genezys to create the best infrastructure technology for investment funds around the world.”

CoinTelegraph Brasil BlockNews

??Brazil Crypto News Rundown

?? Markets

• BTG Pactual launched a recommended portfolio product for cryptocurrency investing on its Mynt digital assets platform. The feature rebalances the user’s portfolio monthly to maintain the same exposure as the recommended portfolio. (Valor) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
• Guga Stucco, an entrepreneur and innovation expert, has launched the STOCCO1 token in partnership with MB | Mercado Bitcoin . The digital variable income token gives tokenholders exposure to a basket of six startups in which Stucco is invested. (Portal do Bitcoin)
• Drex brings the potential to reduce interest rates in financial markets by reducing default risk, project coordinator Fabio Araujo explained in an interview with Poder 360:

"If I take a federal public bond and give it as collateral, it's like I'm lending the money to the government, and not to a person whose credit history I don't know. So interest rates tend to drop a lot in this situation."

• Estar.Finance and SMU Investimentos announced a new tokenized receivables certificate with Nova Era that enables secondary market trading. The total offer for the RWA asset, which was approved by the CVM, is R$1 million with a pre-fixed yield of 1.4% per month and 18.1% per year. Rodrigo C. , co-founder of SMU Investimentos and Estar.Finance, said:

“This joint project is a clear example of how innovation and technology can be used to democratize access to investment opportunities, providing retail investors with the same advantages as large institutional players.” (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

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?? Adoption

• Blockchain infrastructure startup Lumx announced a partnership with Fireblocks to improve the security of its blockchain operations. Lumx customers will be able to use Fireblocks’ integrated smart wallet solution, which will simplify the Web3 experience for users. (Exame)
• Fireblocks is also partnering with DINAMO Networks to offer Dinamo’s cryptographic hardware technology to its digital asset customers.
• Customers of Unicred had their Pix keys leaked in a security incident. (Portal do Bitcoin)
• BNDES approved a R$31 million (US$6 million) investment in Constanta Industrial Ltda to develop blockchain and IoT products for agribusiness. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
• Blocknews and Cantarino Brasileiro are hosting a webinar exploring Drex use cases on August 8.
• Tokenization firm Bloxs Solutions Group announced the arrival of Felipe Martins de Lima as chief blockchain officer. (CoinTelegraph Brasil)

?? Policy, Regulation and Enforcement

• Rodrigo Faria da Silva, director of Amazon Bank, was arrested and faces 20 years in prison for financial crimes related to a pyramid scheme involving cryptocurrencies, binary options and forex. (Portal do Bitcoin)
• The Chamber of Deputies approved two new taxes on cryptocurrencies as part of a broader tax reform project. The proposal will now be considered by the Senate. (CriptoFacil) (CoinTelegraph Brasil)
• The Ministry of Finance published rules for online gambling and sports betting operators. Impact games are those in which “the result is determined by the outcome of a random future event, based on a random generator of numbers, symbols, figures or objects defined in the system of rules.” (Portal do Bitcoin)
• ABTOKEN announced a tokenized system for managing its internal corporate governance processes. The provider is H3aven , which uses a solution from appchain developer Tanssi Network . Executive Director Regina Pedroso said:

“The objective is to create auditable internal processes with absolute compliance, such as, for example, assembly votes, recording of board minutes, compliance forms. In the future, members will have their own utility tokens. With this, they will be able to interact with processes such as requesting institutional communication or promoting agendas.” (BlockNews)

• Cláudio Barbosa, former leader of the Trust Investing pyramid operation, had a request for provisional release granted by a court. He oversee an alleged R$4 billion (US$800 million) cryptocurrency pyramid before disappearing in 2022. He was arrested in May of this year. (Portal do Bitcoin)
• Federal Police launched Operation Fruto Podre targeting a criminal group in Uberlandia engaged in cryptocurrency fraud. (Livecoins)
• The leader of the Legislative Assembly of Amazonas wants to create a course about cryptocurrencies for the population of the Amazon state. (Livecoins)
• A bitcoin influencer with more than 250,000 followers remains at large after running over and killing a physiotherapist in Rio de Janeiro. (Livecoins)