Rio de Janeiro to accept Bitcoin for real estate taxes from 2023

Supporting this cause led by Mayor Eduardo Paes, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced to open a new office in the Brazilian city stating that “He's done his part. We are working on ours.”

The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro will officially start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments for taxes related to urban real estate within their city limits, a.k.a. Imposto sobre a propriedade predial e territorial urbana (IPTU).

As reported by Cointelegraph Brazil, the new pro-crypto tax laws will be implemented from 2023, which was announced by the Secretary of Economic Development, Innovation and Simplification, Chicão Bulhões.

Work from anywhere = Rio! Welcome @binance… Rio on blockchain! @eduardopaes https://t.co/NJEArEvEXV
— Chicão (@ChicaoBulhoes) March 26, 2022

Supporting this cause led by the Brazilian Mayor Eduardo Paes, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced to open a new office in the region stating that “He's done his part. We are working on ours.”

9 days ago, I made a handshake deal with mayor @eduardopaes. Rio De Janeiro will accept crypto for tax payments, and @Binance will open an office in Rio. He's done his part. We are working on ours. https://t.co/HPJONtBfQ8
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 26, 2022

The rollout of this initiative will place Rio de Janeiro as the first Brazilian city to mainstream BTC payments. According to the translated announcement:

“To enable the operation, the municipality will hire companies specialized in converting crypto assets into reais. In this way, the City Hall will receive 100% of the amount in the currency.”

Brazilian secretary Pedro Paulo further acknowledged that the city’s goal — with the acceptance of cryptocurrencies — is to develop a solid market of this new asset class in the city, adding:

“We will stimulate the circulation of cryptocurrencies by integrating them into the payment of taxes, as in the case of IPTU and, in the future, this can be expanded to services such as taxi races, for example.”

The city also plans to involve nonfungible tokens (NFT)-based governance policies across various markets including arts, culture and tourism.

Earlier this year on Jan. 29, Meta, the world’s biggest social media platform, filed a trademark registration with the Brazilian authorities to design, develop and provision hardware and software for various BTC and crypto-related services.

Meta's trademark filing with the Brazilian INMI. Source: INPI

As Cointelegraph reported, Meta’s trademark filing order was placed on Oct. 5, 2021, from Jamaica.

Australia

Loi Nguyen started his journey as an investor back in 2017 by purchasing a few hundred dollars worth of BTC, ETH and traditional stocks. In November 2021, his crypto investments outweighed his entire stock portfolio.

A young resident from Queensland, Australia played the long game of accumulating Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) over several years to eventually overcome the soaring real estate prices during the 2020 bull run and own his dream home.

The 23-year-old Loi Nguyen started his journey as an investor back in 2017 by purchasing a few hundred dollars worth of BTC, ETH and traditional stocks. However, his interest in crypto reached new heights while pursuing an Economics degree:

“Crypto came back into my life when I did a course at the uni on inflation. I learned that Bitcoin can be disinflationary.”

Speaking to news.com.au, Nguyen revealed that the lower interest rates (less than 0.5%) offered by traditional banks could never help him break into the real estate market. By following a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) investment strategy, the young investor continued to diversify his portfolio into cryptocurrencies amid the temporary bear market of 2018:

“I recognize I took on a lot of risks. I wanted to protect my purchasing power, protect my current savings, make sure my money didn’t dwindle away.”

Loi Nguyen as a university student, making planned crypto investments. Source: news.com.au

As traditional markets collapsed during the start of the covid-19 pandemic, Nguyen’s crypto investments outgrew the value of his stock portfolio. This was when his investment focus moved away from traditional markets further into cryptocurrencies — eventually accumulating 1 BTC over several months.

With the intent to purchase real estate, Nguyen cashed out his crypto investments during November-December 2021, a timeline when BTC reached an all-time high of $69,000. In total, the young Aussie sold less than half of his crypto portfolio, leaving him around $31,400 (43,000 Australian dollars) to show the bank as a part of the downpayment.

Nguyen's new one-bedroom apartment in Brisbane, Australia. Source: news.com.au

Nguyen purchased a one-bedroom apartment in Brisbane, which was priced at $314,000 ($430,000 Australian dollars) and required approximately $62,735 ($86,000 Australian dollars) as a downpayment. “About half of that was made up of crypto,” Nguyen added.

After finishing high school, Nguyen worked full-time for a year as a bank teller but was on a low salary of roughly $20,400. “I’m doing a lot better now,” he concluded.

Australian cybersecurity advisor, the Cyber Security Industry Advisory Committee, recently highlighted numerous crypto-specific opportunities.

As Cointelegraph reported, the study titled Exploring Cryptocurrencies underpins the need for a regulatory setting for attaining greater clarity and confidence regarding cryptocurrencies for the Australian market.

The federal advisory recommends the exploration of four key areas that can “help ensure the safe adoption of cryptocurrencies in Australia” — minimum cyber security standards, capability (awareness through specialized training), the follow-the-lead approach and operator transparency.

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