Copy link
Increase text size
Decrease text size
Link copied

Central Bank of Brazil classifies cryptocurrencies in line with IMF guidelines

Tue, 27 Aug 2019, 05:32 am UTC

The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) is moving to classify the buying and selling of crypto-assets according to the guidelines issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Cointelegraph reported.

According to the announcement dated August 26, the BCB said that in line with the IMF guidelines, traded cryptocurrencies will now be classified as non-financial products and therefore, will be accounted as goods on its balance sheet.

The Balance of Payments Statistics Committee, an advisory body on external sector statistics methodology to the IMF Statistics Department, in its paper, entitled “Treatment of Crypto Assets in Macroeconomic Statistics,” recommended that Bitcoin-like crypto assets (or BLCAs) should be classified as produced nonfinancial assets as a distinct sub-category under valuables.

“These assets come into existence as outputs of a production process (i.e., through mining and/or project development) under the control, responsibility, and management of a specific institutional unit using inputs of labor, capital, goods, and services,” the paper reads.

“The resulting output is owned by an institutional unit and can be transferred from one institutional unit to another by engaging in transactions on markets. Further, asset holders do not have claims on other institutional units. These characteristics support the recommended classification of BLCAs as produced nonfinancial assets.”

The central bank explained that as purchase and sale of crypto assets involves the execution of foreign exchange contracts, it will consider selling and buying of crypto assets as the export and import statistics of goods.

“Brazil has been a net importer of [crypto assets], which has contributed to reducing the trade surplus in the balance of payments goods account,” it added (via online translation).

TokenPost | [email protected]

<Copyright © TokenPost. All Rights Reserved. >

Back to top
Copyright ⓒ TokenPost. All Rights Reserved.