VASP license in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil regulates virtual-asset businesses through the PSAV — Prestador de Serviço de Ativos Virtuais regime, the Brazilian equivalent of a VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider) licence. Authorised entities must be constituted as a dedicated corporate form called SPSAV — Sociedade…

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Before applying for PSAV authorisation, a company must first be incorporated in Brazil. For licensing purposes, the recommended default legal form is the Sociedade Limitada (Ltda.) — Brazil's limited-liability-company (LLC) equivalent — because of its limited liability protection and flexible ownership structure, including a single-member option (Sociedade Limitada Unipessoal). Other legal forms (such as the Sociedade Anônima / S.A., branch of a foreign company, and others) are also available in Brazil; see the Basic company reference for the full list.

Confirmed features of the Ltda. form: - Can be formed with a single quotaholder (Sociedade Limitada Unipessoal) or with two or more quotaholders. - Requires at least one administrator (individual). - Requires a registered office (sede) in Brazil. - No statutory minimum capital for general commercial activity (though regulated activities such as PSAV/SPSAV carry their own separate capital rules — see below).

Company registration itself takes place at the state-level Junta Comercial (Commercial Registry), coordinated nationally by DREI — Departamento Nacional de Registro Empresarial e Integração, together with federal tax registration (CNPJ) through the Receita Federal (official registrar URL not confirmed in available sources).

For banking, Bradesco is confirmed as a major Brazilian bank available for corporate account opening; other large national banks (Banco do Brasil, Itaú Unibanco, Santander Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal) also operate in the market.

Brazil created a dedicated, purpose-built legal framework for virtual-asset businesses rather than forcing them into generic financial-institution rules, giving operators regulatory clarity under a single national regulator. Key legal basis and requirements:

• Legal basis: Lei nº 14.478, de 21 de dezembro de 2022 created the PSAV category and delegated the choice of regulator to the Executive; Decreto nº 11.563, de 13 de junho de 2023 designated the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) as the regulator, authoriser and supervisor of PSAVs (assets that qualify as securities under Lei 6.385 remain with the CVM instead).
• Operative rulebook: Resolução BCB nº 519 (authorisation and operation of PSAVs), nº 520 (creation of the SPSAV corporate form, in three modalities: intermediária, custodiante, corretora), and nº 521 (treatment of certain PSAV operations as foreign-exchange transactions), all in force from 2 February 2026.
• This is a prior-authorisation regime, not a simple notification-based registration, comparable to the licensing model used for other regulated Brazilian financial institutions.
• Corporate form: the SPSAV must be constituted in Brazil, with head office and management in national territory; it must take the form of a Ltda. or S.A. with at least three directors/officers accountable to the BCB — a sole individual member is not permitted — and capital must be paid in cash with full immediate integration of the subscribed amount.
• Technical certification: an independent certification against 17 criteria (asset segregation/proof of reserves, governance, internal audit, compliance, listing policy, cybersecurity, AML/CFT, custody arrangements and key management) is mandatory from 2 February 2026 under Instrução Normativa BCB nº 701, with records kept for at least 5 years.
• Registration system: interested institutions must update their registration through the BCB's Unicad system.
• Foreign-exchange treatment: a cap of US$100,000 per international payment/transfer applies where the counterparty is not authorised to conduct foreign-exchange operations, and reporting obligations under Resolução 521 for foreign-exchange/capital-flow information start 4 May 2026.
• Securities overlap: under Parecer de Orientação CVM nº 40, a crypto-asset is treated as a security if it digitally represents an instrument already covered by Lei 6.385 art. 2, I-VIII, or constitutes a 'contrato de investimento coletivo'; tokenisation itself does not require prior CVM approval.

An SPSAV must have at least three directors/officers accountable to the BCB; a structure with a single individual member is not permitted.

Brazil regulates virtual-asset businesses through the PSAV — Prestador de Serviço de Ativos Virtuais regime, the Brazilian equivalent of a VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider) licence. Authorised entities must be constituted as a dedicated corporate form called SPSAV — Sociedade Prestadora de Serviços de Ativos Virtuais, and are supervised by the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB). This page explains how the PSAV/SPSAV authorisation fits together with standard Brazilian company registration, what the regulator requires, and the road map to market entry.

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Based on the confirmed stage timelines only (Fase 2 review of up to 60 days, extendable by another 60 days, i.e. up to 120 days), plus the reported 270-day filing window and 12-month operational start window for new entrants, the process spans several months to roughly a year — this does not include Stage 1-3 and Stage 5 timelines, which are not stated in the sources.

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• Central Bank of Brazil