Both national and international companies will participate in the Central Bank of Brazil (CBDC) digital currency pilot project. The Banco Central do Brasil, the country’s central bank, will start adding participants to the digital real platform in mid-June 2023.
On May 24, the central bank published the final list of participants in the CBDC pilot project. The participants were chosen from among 36 offers submitted by individual companies and consortia, “that add up to more than 100 institutions.” The final number of participants is 14; however, some represent groups of companies. For example, the American technology giant Microsoft, the Brazilian bank Banco Inter and the digital technology company 7COMm are part of the 14 participants.
Other participants are Visa, Santander and several Brazilian banking institutions, such as Itaú Unibanco, BTG Pactual and Banco Bradesco.
In the current phase of the digital real pilot, The central bank will test the privacy and programmability functionalities of its platform through a single use case: a delivery-versus-payment protocol for federal public securities.
The Brazilian CBDC pilot was officially announced in 2022. The value of the digital real would be linked to the national fiat currency, the real. It would have a fixed supply and would be minted over time.
With a population of 214 million inhabitants, the largest country in Latin America continues to be a place of attraction for global crypto companies. In January, Binance and Mastercard partnered to launch a cryptocurrency prepaid card in the country. Since March, Coinbase has partnered with local payment providers to offer crypto purchases and allow deposits and withdrawals in the local currency. On May 19, the central bank granted Latam Gateway – Binance’s payment provider in Brazil – a license to operate as a payment institution and e-money issuer.
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