The Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), the country’s antitrust regulator, sent the questionnaire to 10 crypto exchanges whose banks accounts have previously been closed: Bitcoin Market, Bitcambio, BitcoinTrade, Foxbit, Walltime, Braziliex, BitBlue, Open Digital Capital (OTC), e-juno, and Profitfy.
The move comes shortly after CADE launched a probe into 6 major banks to find out whether they had closed accounts for crypto exchanges. The initial request, sent by the Brazilian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain (ABCB), claimed that Banco do Brasil had closed the account of crypto exchange Atlas Quantum.
CADE has set October 19, as a deadline to respond to the questions, noting that the companies will be fined up to 5,000 Brazilian reals (approximately $1,300) if they fail to send in answers. The penalty could be increased up to 20 times if necessary, reaching 100,000 reals (around $25,800), CADE clarifies.
In the questionnaire, the exchanges have to reveal the identity of those who will answer the questions. Furthermore, they must explain how their business functioned in Brazil and clarify if they were unable to open a bank account, or if the account was closed by some financial institution.
One of the reasons why banks may have decided to close the crypto exchanges’ accounts was that they did not comply with the National Classification of Economic Activity. For these reasons, the questionnaire touches on the issue of how the exchanges declared their activity to banks while registering their accounts.
Yesterday Coinstelegram reported that Brazil now allows investment funds to indirectly buy cryptocurrencies.
