Brazil’s financial watchdog is pushing to quickly establish rules for using blockchain technology with investments. The regulator, known as the CVM, has asked for a plan outlining how stocks and other securities can be issued, bought, and sold on blockchains, and wants an initial version developed soon.
The agency has formed a team to explore and develop regulations for tokenization. Their initial recommendations are expected within two months, indicating that Brazil is actively transitioning from planning to creating concrete rules for this technology.
If you’re developing platforms for issuing digital assets, operating brokerage services, or handling asset custody, now is the time to prepare. The initial guidelines will be tested gradually, but the decisions made over the next two months will heavily influence how things operate for the foreseeable future.
On July 17, 2026, the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) formed a working group to explore the potential of using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for securities. This initiative, formalized through official order No. 177 on July 15, 2026, has an initial 120-day timeframe with a possible 30-day extension.
The group, led by José Alexandre Cavalcanti Vasco and Bruno de Freitas Gomes, comprises representatives from 14 different CVM departments. Within 60 days of being established, they are tasked with presenting a proposal for a trial program allowing the tokenization of securities.
This move signals an early step towards enabling the issuance, trading, custody, and settlement of tokenized assets in Brazil. The initial phase will likely involve limitations and reporting requirements as the regulatory framework develops.
What the CVM just put in motion
Brazil’s securities regulator, the CVM, has created a group to explore using blockchain technology for the country’s stock market. This group will thoroughly investigate and propose regulations covering the entire process of issuing, safeguarding, trading, and finalizing securities transactions on blockchain. This isn’t just promotional material; it’s a comprehensive plan for the complete lifecycle of digital securities.
This group operates under the rules set forth in Portaria CVM/PTE No. 177, which was signed on July 15th and published on July 17th, 2026. The initial term is 120 days, with a potential extension of another 30 days. A key requirement is that the group must submit a plan for testing its framework to the CVM board within 60 days of starting work – these are firm deadlines, not suggestions (LegisMap).
This isn’t a small team working in isolation. The CVM committee includes members from 14 different departments, led by José Alexandre Cavalcanti Vasco and Bruno de Freitas Gomes. Because it’s such a diverse group, any project they undertake will likely involve overseeing the market, protecting investors, improving infrastructure, and enforcing regulations right from the start (CVM — gov.br).
Brazil’s securities regulator is now establishing the processes needed to create official rules for digital securities, and has released a first version for review with a 60-day feedback period (CVM — gov.br).
Why the 60-day clock matters for builders
Sixty days isn’t enough time for a complete overhaul of a financial market, but it’s sufficient to establish initial rules that will guide future projects for years to come. This first set of guidelines will likely determine who can participate, which investments are allowed, what information needs to be shared, and how assets are safeguarded. Even if these rules are only temporary, they’ll likely become the standard for testing and shape the final, permanent regulations.
If you’re building a platform for tokenized assets – like one that handles trading, custody, or transfers – now is the time to plan your technology carefully. The decisions you make about things like wallets, security (signing), identity verification (KYC), and how you track ownership will either fit with upcoming industry standards, or you’ll have to redo them later.
The results from the initial 60-day period are presented to the CVM’s governing board – this represents their strategic direction. Typically, when a large group like this submits a proposal, it includes practical suggestions for how to put it into action and an assessment of whether it’s feasible within Brazil’s financial system.
What the experimental framework may include
We haven’t received the official document yet, but based on the document’s objectives and similar implementations in other regions, we anticipate certain common themes will emerge.
Eligibility and scope
- Asset types: likely plain vanilla at first. Debentures, fund quotas, or other regulated securities that translate cleanly to tokens. Exotic structures may wait.
- Participants: licensed intermediaries, market infrastructures, and possibly fintechs admitted under a pilot, each with defined responsibilities.
- Limits: caps on issuance size or number of investors during the pilot phase to contain systemic risk.
Custody and control
- Qualified custody: requirements for who can hold client assets, with wallet governance policies, key management standards, and operational resilience tests.
- Ownership records: clarity that on-chain state and off-chain registries must reconcile, including how errors are corrected.
- Segregation: rules to keep client tokens separate from firm assets, plus audit trails.
Trading and settlement
- Trading venues: conditions for matching and reporting trades, possibly within sandboxes or under existing ATS-like permissions.
- Settlement finality: a definition of when a tokenized security transfer is considered final under Brazilian law, and how reversals are handled if needed.
- Interoperability: guidance on chain selection and how to manage bridges or wrapped representations to reduce fragmentation risk.
Disclosures and reporting
- Issuer disclosures: standardized docs and periodic reporting adapted to tokenized instruments.
- On-chain transparency: minimum metadata or on-chain references to prospectuses and corporate actions.
- Supervisory access: data interfaces so the CVM can monitor activity effectively.
A helpful hint: when building smart contracts and guides, include easy-to-use controls for things like limits, approved lists, and data tracking. This way, when new tools become available, you can quickly enable features without needing to change the fundamental code.
Who is likely in scope on day one
Securities created using blockchain technology attract many different parties. While initial adoption might be limited, anticipate that various organizations and individuals will eventually be affected.
- Issuers that want to tokenize debt or equity-like instruments, especially those already under CVM registration.
- Broker-dealers and distributors that place or trade those instruments for clients, including retail platforms if allowed by the pilot’s limits.
- Market infrastructures that handle trading or post-trade processes and may experiment with on-chain netting or delivery versus payment.
- Custodians and registrars who hold client assets or maintain ownership records, including firms adding wallet and key management capabilities.
- Funds and asset managers that might buy tokenized instruments for portfolios and need valuation, pricing, and audit comfort.
- Tech providers building issuance platforms, KYC engines, oracle feeds, or chain monitoring tools.
The initial program will have requirements for joining, and people will likely be accepted based on how prepared they are. If you don’t currently have the necessary qualifications, you’ll probably need to collaborate with someone who does.
A practical checklist to get ready
- Map your regulatory posture. Identify which existing CVM rules you already meet and where tokenization introduces gaps. Write it down. It will speed conversations with counsel and the regulator.
- Pick a chain with intent. Document why it fits your risk, performance, and interoperability needs. Be ready to justify choices on uptime, governance, and upgrade paths.
- Harden custody. Define key ceremonies, role-based controls, and recovery. Practice a simulated key compromise and show how clients still get made whole.
- Engineer whitelists and transfer controls. Many pilots require participant whitelisting, jurisdiction filters, and lockups. Build these as modules, not hard forks.
- Automate disclosures. Set up canonical data feeds for terms, prospectuses, interest schedules, and corporate actions. If the rulebook asks for on-chain references, you already have them.
- Rehearse incident response. Create playbooks for chain halts, oracle failures, or corrupted state. Who calls who, and how do you pause, resume, or roll forward safely.
- Plan audits. Line up external reviews of smart contracts and custody processes. Pilots often require attestations before launch.
Key risks you should price in now
- Regulatory drift. An experimental framework may change quickly. Design for adaptability and keep hardcoded assumptions to a minimum.
- Smart contract bugs. Tokenized securities need strict transfer logic. Formal verification or risk-reduced patterns are worth the time.
- Custody failures. Operational wallets and MPC setups are only as good as their procedures. Segregation and audit logs are non negotiable.
- Interoperability traps. Bridges and wrapping create additional risk. If you must bridge, define limits and emergency stops.
- Liquidity illusions. Early tokenized instruments can look liquid but trade thin. Size positions and redemption terms accordingly.
- Tax and accounting friction. Even if the instrument is familiar, token mechanics can raise questions on timing, FX, and recognition. Confirm treatment with advisors before launch.
Just a reminder: This isn’t financial advice. Investing in digital securities (tokenized securities) involves several risks, including market fluctuations, technical issues, potential problems with the underlying code, and changes in regulations. Please do your own research before making any decisions.
How Brazil’s push stacks up next to the EU and US
The European Union has been allowing financial institutions to test the trading and settlement of digital tokens under a special program with safety measures in place. This gave Europe an early lead in carefully exploring this technology. Now, Brazil is indicating it wants to create a similar system, designed to fit its own laws and financial infrastructure. The key benefit is being able to learn how tokenized systems work in practice without immediately having to integrate them into existing, older systems.
In the US, experiments with tokenization have been happening under existing rules or through traditional financial firms, which has led to complicated questions about how to safely hold and transfer these digital assets. This method offers flexibility, but it also creates a patchwork of different approaches. Brazil, on the other hand, is trying to develop a single, clear plan for its market, even if they begin with a limited focus.
Brazil appears poised to quickly learn from international examples while tailoring solutions to its own unique situation. The short timeframe for achieving results is creating a sense of urgency that many other places have lacked.
Timelines and what to watch next
Here is the core sequence to track:
- Installation date. The 60-day countdown starts from the group’s installation, not the press release. Note that timing to estimate the draft window accurately (LegisMap).
- Initial proposal. Within that 60-day window, a proposal for an experimental framework should go to the CVM’s board. Watch for scope, eligibility, reporting, and custody language (CVM — gov.br).
- Public consultation. Many CVM initiatives follow with public hearings or consultations. If there is one, use it. Field feedback early so your design does not fight the rules later.
- Pilot selection. Pay attention to who is admitted to early pilots. Their stack choices can become de facto standards that others adopt to interoperate.
- Coordination signals. Look for joint statements or cross references with other Brazilian authorities on payments and settlement. Those hints tell you how delivery versus payment might be structured.
- Extensions. The Portaria allows a 30-day extension of the group’s life. If used, it might mean additional complexity to solve or a broader scope emerging.
A helpful hint: Have one person on your team check the court schedule every day and keep a record of any updates. Even a small, incorrect piece of information can cause significant delays – potentially costing you months of work.
Implementation questions builders should ask their teams
- Can we enforce investor eligibility and lockups at the token level without breaking transferability for permitted wallets
- How do we handle corporate actions on-chain, including interest accrual, coupon payments, and redemption events
- What is our recovery plan if an issuer or custodian needs to correct a mistaken transfer
- Which oracle sources do we trust for rates and pricing, and how do we fail safe if they go offline
- Do our contracts support pausing, emergency redemptions, or migration if the framework evolves
- How do we evidence segregation of client assets for auditors, with proofs that are meaningful and not just screenshots
Case patterns that tend to work in early pilots
From other markets, a few designs often survive the first round of regulatory scrutiny:
- Permissioned transfer with allowlists. Wallets get onboarded through KYC, and transfers only process to approved holders. Secondary trading still happens, but inside the whitelisted universe.
- Delivery versus payment via escrow contracts. Funds and tokens sit in escrow until both sides meet conditions, then settle atomically. It is less fancy than cross-chain dreams, but it works.
- On-chain corporate action hooks. Issuers post schedules and payment instructions in metadata, and custodians run jobs that read contracts and trigger payouts. No PDF scavenger hunts.
- Dual books with reconciliation. A conventional registry mirrors the on-chain state daily. If a fork or outage happens, you have a legal source of truth to resolve disputes.
It is not glamorous, but it aligns with what supervisors want to see in the first innings.
What this means for professional investors
Asset managers are currently focused on the practical aspects of tokenization – getting things connected and working smoothly – rather than trying to generate unusually high returns right away. Tokenizing assets can speed up transactions and make processes like dividend payments easier, which lowers operational costs. However, newly issued tokens may initially be difficult to trade with limited availability and significant price differences until more established trading platforms and market participants become involved.
If you’re thinking of buying tokenized assets in Brazil when the new regulations allow it, make sure you have clear plans for who will hold them securely and how their value will be determined. If the blockchain is private, check the requirements and schedule for joining. If it’s public, find out how the system handles things like preventing censorship and making decisions about company actions.
Lastly, review the fund’s investment restrictions. Some older documents don’t account for digital assets held ‘on-chain,’ even if those assets are traditional securities. Make sure this language is updated *before* investing in these types of assets.
Stay on top of the next moves
Stay informed about Brazil’s move towards tokenization with Crypto Daily. We provide concise updates on every official filing and pilot program, offering direct links and getting straight to the point – no unnecessary details.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is the 60-day deadline for
According to official guidelines, the working group has 60 days from its launch to submit a plan for testing tokenized securities to the CVM board. This plan will begin discussions about potential regulations and could result in trial programs or public feedback requests.
Who coordinates the working group
According to the CVM, José Alexandre Cavalcanti Vasco and Bruno de Freitas Gomes are leading the group, which is made up of representatives from all 14 of its departments.
Does this mean tokenized securities are already approved in Brazil
That’s not quite right. This announcement starts a careful, step-by-step plan for creating and trying out new rules. We can expect a trial period with restrictions before anything becomes official.
What kinds of assets might be included first
Initially, projects tend to start with straightforward assets that are easily represented as tokens, such as some types of bonds or shares in funds. More complicated or new financial products are usually added later, once the team has gained experience.
Will the framework pick a specific blockchain
The rules around creating multiple blockchain networks (chains) vary. Some regions permit them as long as strong security, oversight, and maintenance measures are in place. Other areas prefer starting with just one chain. Developers need to be prepared to explain why they chose a particular approach.
How should platforms prepare before the rules are published
Improve how you handle sensitive data, carefully manage its movement, automatically share required information, and prepare for regular checks. Include flexible terms in your agreements that allow you to easily adjust when new regulations become official.
Could the timeline be extended
The new regulations give the group 120 days to complete the work, with a potential extension of another 30 days. While the deadline to submit proposals is in 60 days, the project could continue beyond that if the extension is granted.
2026-07-21 15:13