crypto holdings

Proposed bill in Argentina encourages citizens to reveal crypto holdings

Argentines could soon be motivated with tax incentives to declare their crypto holdings as the government aims to tackle money laundering with a proposed new law.

Argentina’s Ministry of Economy, the country’s economic policy manager, has drafted a bill to encourage Argentines to declare their cryptocurrency holdings, using the inducement of discounted tax rates.

Aimed at combating money laundering, the “Externalization of Argentine Savings” draft law was introduced by economy minister Sergio Massa, according to a Jan. 6 report by local outlet Errepar.

The bill would require crypto holders to produce an affidavit — a sworn statement identifying the whereabouts of their holdings to the government.

The bill proposes tax incentives to encourage citizens to declare their holdings.

Those who voluntarily declare their holdings within 90 days of the law coming into force would pay just a 2.5% tax on the capital gains of their crypto holdings. This tax rate wouincrease incrementally every 90 days until it reaches 15%, the country’s standard capital gains tax rate.

*Sergio Massa (right) pictured with Argentine president Alberto Fernández (middle) at the G20 Bali summit in Nov. 2022. Image:* *Casa Rosada*

The bill also aims to encourage Argentines to declare holdings of other financial assets that are subject to capital gains such as fiat currency, shares, stocks, real estate and even furniture.

The proposed law would force both domestic and overseas holdings to be deposited into approved banks either in Argentina or in foreign banks regulated by that jurisdiction’s central bank or securities commission.

The bill will be tabled and discussed in the next parliamentary session.

Emerging markets are a hotbed for crypto adoption, with Argentina rankin13th overall in the 2022 Global Adoption Index from blockchain data firm Chainalysis.

Argentines have been lured to crypto due to high inflation in the country and its ease of use for cross-border transactions. Argentina’s inflation rate almost hit 72.4% in 2022, according to Statista data.

Over 12,000 Brazil companies declare crypto holdings in record high

August figures released by Brazil’s tax authority revealed over 12,000 companies have cryptocurrency holdings, the largest amount ever recorded.

The number of companies holding cryptocurrency in Brazil has reached new record highs as of August amid an increased trust in cryptocurrencies and high inflation rates.

According to local media reports, the country’s taxation authority, Receita Federal do Brasil (RFB) — also known as the Federal Revenue of Brazil — recorded 12,053 unique organizations declaring crypto on their balance sheets in August 2022.

The number is a 6.1% increase from the 11,360 companies in July and is the month with the highest recorded number of companies with crypto holdings to date.

The RFB noted that Bitcoin (BTC) is the most popular cryptocurrency held by institutions, followed by stablecoin Tether (USDT).

However, the number of individual Brazilian investors holding crypto fell from the prior month, down to 1.3 million in August.

The value of the total declarations also experienced a slight decline, likely due to the condition of the crypto markets, with August seeing a total of $2.1 billion (11 billion Brazilian reals), down from $3.4 billion in July.

The United States dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT had the most value transacted, with over $1.42 billion moved across nearly 80,000 transactions in August, averaging roughly $17,500 per transaction.

BTC was second with almost $270 million transacted but took first place for the number of transactions, clocking in over 2.1 million in the same month at a much lower average transaction amount of $130.

It was noted the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) dropped from third to fifth place from July to August in regard to value transacted, losing out to Ether (ETH) and Brazilian Digital Token (BRZ), a Brazilian real-pegged ERC-20 token.

Brazilians’ trust in cryptocurrency remains high according to a September Bitstamp “Crypto Pulse” report, with 77% stating they trusted digital assets.

Multiple financial companies in the country have started offering cryptocurrency services, such as brokerage giant XP Inc. and payment application PicPay both integrating crypto exchange services in August. Crypto exchange Binance has also increased its efforts in the country, doubling its team since March and opening two new offices on Oct. 4.

Brazil’s inflation rate hit a 26-year high of 12.1% in April but has since cooled slightly to 8.7% in the latest August figures, according to the data from the country’s statistics agency.