Brazil’s $252 billion crypto market gets $10,000 self-custody reporting rule

Brazil will require regulated financial institutions to report large crypto transfers involving self-custody wallets from Oct. 1.

Under Resolution BCB 588, institutions authorized by the Banco Central do Brasil must notify the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf) whenever they send virtual assets worth at least $10,000 to a self-custody wallet or receive the same amount from one.

The requirement covers both deposits from and withdrawals to wallets controlled directly by users. The filing obligation falls on the institution processing the transfer, with qualifying transactions reported to Coaf by the next business day under Brazil’s existing anti-money-laundering framework.

The threshold operates automatically. Institutions do not need to determine that a transaction is suspicious before filing a report, meaning legitimate transfers between an exchange and a customer's personal wallet can enter Coaf's reporting system solely because they meet the amount and transaction-type criteria.

Brazil already requires financial institutions to separately report transactions they assess as suspicious.

The new provision adds another layer by giving authorities visibility into large movements crossing the boundary between regulated platforms and self-custody, even where no suspicious activity has been identified.