Institutions have once again broken Brazil’s record for cryptocurrency purchases, according to a new report from the Brazilian Tax Agency (RFB). The organization registered nearly 42,000 companies buying some kind of cryptocurrency in March, a new record that overturns the 40,161 companies that announced purchases of cryptocurrencies in September.

Brazilian companies buy cryptocurrencies in bulk

More and more companies use cryptocurrencies as part of their finances in Brazil. According to the last data released by the Brazilian tax authority (RBF), which is legally entitled to receive taxpayers’ cryptocurrency purchase statements, nearly 42,000 companies purchased some kind of cryptocurrency in September.

The 41,817 firms buying cryptocurrencies shattered the record number of 40,161 registered in the month, when 1.265.818 institutions also shattered the previous record. However, the number of people buying cryptocurrencies fell from nearly 1.5 million citizens who bought cryptocurrencies during the same period.

This new record shows that institutions have been taking advantage of the low prices offered by the market to stockpile them as part of their treasury bills. The impact of the recent collapse of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, on the trust of Brazilian customers in the cryptocurrency market is unclear, since the figures provided correspond to the month of September.

USDT maintains its leading position, BRZ rises

As with other opportunities, the report also includes data on the number of registered transactions and the amount exchanged with each token. Following the trend of previous months, Tether’s USDT, the dollar-pegged stablecoin, was the token used to settle more funds in Brazil in 1.8 months. Nearly $119,366 of nearly $119,366 transactions used USDT in transactions.

This popularity is further enhanced by third-party connectivity capabilities between USDT and traditional financial systems. On Aug. 22, cryptocurrency service provider firm Smartpay, integrated a service it has partnered with Brazilian ATM provider Tecban to allow users to convert USDT to fiat at more than 24,000 ATMs.

Bitcoin (BTC), however, remained the most traded with 13,400 transactions, in which $19.02 billion was transferred. The native real-pegged stablecoin BRZ had the second highest number of registered operations at 693,086. Reportedly, these operations were primarily conducted on FTX, and it is uncertain whether this volume will be absorbed by other available markets. The US central bank, and ETH, all completed the top five currencies with the largest settlement volume.

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Bitcoin Brazilian tax bureau, BRZ, crypto, real stablecoin, record, RFB, zebra, iron plate, tether, USDT

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a Venezuelan cryptocurrency journalist. He describes himself as a latecomer, getting into the crypto space in September 2017 when the price went up. With a background in computer engineering, living in Venezuela, and affected by the cryptocurrency boom on a social level, he offers a different perspective on crypto's success and how it can help the unbanked and underserved.