The Brazilian city of Rio De Janeiro is making huge steps towards becoming a global hub for the cryptocurrency industry. Come 2023, residents of Rio will be permitted to settle real estate tax payments using bitcoin.
First Brazilian City To Accept Crypto Tax Payments
Rio De Janeiro is expected to become the first Brazilian city to enable bitcoin tax payments.
This is according to an announcement made by Chicão Bulhões, the Secretary of Economic Development, Innovation and Simplification. To make this initiative possible starting from 2023, the city will hire a number of companies that will be converting the cryptocurrencies into the Brazilian reais, thus ensuring that City Hall receives 100% of the funds in the fiat currency.
Rio is also planning to create its own non-fungible tokens (NFT) collection that will feature images of the city’s most popular tourist attraction sites. The goal of this move is to boost tourism as well as motivate local artists using NFTs.
Rio’s Finance Secretary Pedro Paulo further noted that integrating cryptocurrencies into the payment of taxes is just the beginning as the city plans to expand to more services in the future.
The Brazilian city’s ambitious crypto plans are not surprising. As ZyCrypto reported, the mayor of Rio De Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, previously said he wanted to allocate 1% of Brazil’s second-most populous city’s treasury reserves to crypto. Paes also revealed that Rio had plans to give residents discounts on tax payments made in bitcoin.
Crypto Interest In Latin America Grows
Brazil is evidently taking significant steps to help crypto adoption grow. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced Friday that he had sealed a deal with Rio’s mayor, which will see the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume open an office in the city. The decision to set up shop in Rio took shape after Paes gave Zhao a key to the city.
Latin America, in general, was hit hard by the pandemic, with fears of another debt crisis impending. Since El Salvador made bitcoin its legal tender in September 2021, crypto interest among Latin American countries has continued to surge.
Leaders in Panama, Paraguay, Argentina, Mexico are now more open to bitcoin and are currently seeking a greater role for the flagship cryptocurrency in their economies. These countries can reap unprecedented benefits from embracing crypto. In El Salvador, for instance, the tourism industry has enjoyed a 30% growth since the country formally adopted BTC as legal tender.
