Only about 40 firms have filed for Brazil's crypto licence, a law firm counts, far short of the 150 to 200 expected, as banks prepare to cut off the rest

Brazil's licensing window for crypto firms closed on October 30 with far fewer applicants than the market had expected. A count by the law firm Panucci, Severo e Nebias Advogados, reported by crypto.news and Bitcoin.com News, found about 40 institutions with applications or other licensing activity, against earlier expectations of 150 to 200. The count rests on public information, not a central bank release.

The roughly 40 include international exchanges, banks, payment firms and B3, the stock exchange operator, according to crypto.news. Binance applied through a separate Brazilian entity, BBrasil, and Itaú has formalized its own crypto services. Lemon left Brazil and announced plans to close about 15,000 accounts, the outlet says, while Coinext, NovaDAX and Digitra.com closed or reduced their retail operations.

The law firm's Tiago Severo says the rules require daily reporting of client custody to the central bank, monthly proof of reserves and three years of audited accounts, which many smaller platforms concluded they could not sustain. Capital requirements run from 10.8 million to 37.2 million reais, depending on services and risk, per crypto.news.

The next step is November 6, when banks and payment institutions generally stop handling virtual-asset transactions for unlicensed providers. Severo says the central bank could take up to two years to decide applications from new entrants, according to crypto.news.