Brazil Becomes The Latest Country To Confirm Plans to Launch A CBDC

Brazil's Economy Minister recently spoke during the celebration of the Caixa Economica Federal's 100 millionth digital savings account, and he used the opportunity to announce Brazil's own CBDC.

The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) trend is larger than ever, with countries worldwide announcing their intention to create their own digital currency, one after another. The latest in this long line is Brazil, whose Economy Minister personally confirmed plans to launch digital real.

Brazil announces its upcoming CBDC — digital real.

Brazil's decision to launch its own digital currency does not come as a major surprise. After all, as soon as China announced digital yuan, many countries started developing their own CBDCs in China's fear of obtaining too much influence.

As soon as a few nations' central banks showed their willingness to start creating their own crypto, the rest were bound to follow. Brazil comes as the next one in line, as confirmed by its Economy Minister, Paulo Guedes.

Guedes made his statement yesterday, November 5th, during a special ceremony that celebrated the opening of the 100 millionth digital savings account in Caixa Economica Federal.

He said that the central bank is once again autonomous and that the digital dimension is booming. With that being the case, he revealed that Brazil would have its own digital currency and remain ahead of many other countries.

Brazil was prepared for work on CBDC, but it did not address it before

Interestingly, this was the first time that the country's Economy Minister addressed this subject. However, he still did not reveal any more details regarding the upcoming digital real.

Of course, Brazil has been keeping an eye on crypto in the past. Its central bank even announced setting up a study group for potential CBDC issuance back in August.

Its president, Roberto Campos Neto, also said that Brazil requires improvement in its currency. However, he expected that this would happen within the scope of a new federal digital payment system, Pix. He said,

“In our case, Pix is very important because from now on, we see the union of an instant, open and interoperable form of payment with an open data system. They will meet somewhere in the future with a currency that has yet to be perfected.”

Brazil’s CBDC to arrive in 2022

As mentioned, there are currently no available details on the digital real, as not even the central bank has released new information about it. However, Campos Neto did reveal that digital real will be in circulation in 2022.

Another interesting thing regarding this announcement is its timing. As some may know, Pix just recorded its first transaction this Monday, and it will be officially available as of November 15th.

According to the central bank's statement, it will only be used for foreign exchange transactions in and out of the country as for digital real.