B3, the Brazilian Stock Exchange, has revealed that it plans to offer its first official cryptocurrency product, Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading, within the next six months. André Milanez, the company’s chief financial officer, announced the news on a conference call on Monday. Institutional and individual investors in Brazil can currently trade 11 ETFs with exposure to cryptocurrencies through B3, including Empiricus’ CRPT11 with Vitreo; Investo’s NFTS11; QR Assets’ QBTC11, QETH11, and QDFI11; and Hashdex’s META11, HASH11, BITH11, ETHE11, DEFI11, WEB311. Furthermore, the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) has approved over 25 investment funds in Brazil that provide exposure to the crypto-assets market. Brazilian Stock Exchange In January, B3’s head of information technology, Jochen Mielke de Lima, stated that the Brazilian stock exchange would offer numerous cryptocurrencies-related products in 2022, including Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) futures. The CEO stated that the Brazilian stock exchange had been studying the cryptocurrency industry from a technology standpoint since 2016. According to Jochen Mielke de Lima, B3 plans to offer services to national cryptocurrency exchanges and act as a “centralizer” of custody and settlement operations in addition to BTC and ETH futures. B3 also wants to introduce new cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based products in 2022. There are studies on an asset tokenization platform, cryptocur...
