The Mayor of Rio De Janeiro (a famous city in brazil), Mayor Eduardo Paes, has revealed plans to allow 1.5% of the city’s reserves in BTC.
Turning Rio Into A Crypto Hub
Paes made this revelation while speaking at the Rio innovation week, which commenced on January 11. O’ Globo, a leading local news media, revealed that Paes’ ultimate goal is to turn the famous city into a crypto hub. The Mayor shared his plans for Rio De Janeiro while chatting with Francis Suarez, the Miami Mayor who was recently in the news for accepting to receive his salaries in BTC.
Peas further revealed that apart from turning the city into a crypto hub, it also plans to grant tax exemptions to those involved in the crypto sector in that city. Other participants in the discussion included Pedro Paulo (the city’s financial secretary), who remarked that the city’s authorities are planning to offer a minimum of 15% discount to those who pay their taxes in BTC.
But he quickly added that this isn’t finalized yet as some legal frameworks still need to be considered. A discount on taxes would be a welcome development for Brazilians as most of them are already groaning from paying several other taxes aside from income tax.
Brazil’s Crypto Sphere
Details regarding Rio’s crypto hub launch are still sketchy. Some clarifications still need to be made. For example, how will the city store and keep the BTC it will purchase and receive from taxpayers? Also, would the city enlist the help of crypto payment processing firms, or does it plan to develop its crypto payment processor? Also, the Mayor didn’t reveal whether there are plans to launch city-backed crypto like the MiamiCoin.
The news follows brazil’s increasingly positive stance on the crypto industry. Luizao Goulart, the nation’s federal deputy, has already proposed a bill to the legislature to enable employees (in the private and public sector) to get paid in BTC. Furthermore, a top crypto-related fintech company in brazil (Mercadopago) launched a feature on its platform which allowed Brazilians to perform crypto transactions, especially bitcoin and ether.
A recent report by the nation’s apex bank revealed that Brazilians own at least $51B worth of cryptocurrencies. Data from Portal Du Bitcoin (a local crypto analytics firm) confirmed the apex bank’s assertions. It also revealed that Brazilians bought nearly $4.3B worth of cryptocurrencies last year.
Technical Indicators Reveal A Death Cross On The BTC Chart
A death cross is a technical pattern in which the short-term MA (like the 50 MA) crosses underneath a relative long-term MA (like the 200 MA). It is usually an indicator of bearishness. Its opposite is the golden cross, and it usually indicates bullishness. After three months of decline, the BTC price on the 50 MA crossed underneath the 200 MA today.
BTC death cross. Source: TradingView
While some analysts predict that this death cross signals the beginning of a long-term downtrend for BTC price, many others opined that combining the death cross with other signals is the best way to determine the long-term downtrend for BTC.