Brazil's federal tax authority, the Receita Federal, will start cross-checking data on crypto asset operations in Brazil with information received from other countries from next year. The move was mentioned by the Receita's special secretary, Robinson Barreirinhas, during a press briefing on operations against illegal betting, and is part of Brazil's alignment with the OECD's international standard for the automatic exchange of information on digital assets.
According to Barreirinhas, the Receita has updated its crypto asset reporting and aligned the Brazilian system with the OECD model. This will allow Brazil's tax authority to receive information from foreign tax administrations and also share data with other countries. "Brazil is now joining this network of information from abroad," the secretary said, adding that the change will give the tax authority a more consistent volume of data for enforcement and to support criminal investigations.
The remark came during a broader explanation of the use of corporate structures, fintechs, funds and crypto assets to conceal beneficial owners. Barreirinhas said the Receita's intelligence unit had already identified cases of simulation and concealment across different sectors of the economy, not only in betting. He cited, for example, the inclusion of fintechs in the e-Financeira reporting system, stronger beneficial-owner disclosure requirements, and the updated crypto asset reporting rules as tools to close loopholes used by criminal organisations.
On crypto specifically, the secretary said the Receita had identified, in Operation Arena, the use of digital assets to conceal the real beneficiaries of illicit funds. The operation, launched two weeks before the briefing, targeted tax and financial irregularities linked to the fixed-odds betting market, with tax evasion exceeding 1 billion reais (around 167.7 million EUR), according to Brazil's federal prosecution service, the Ministério Público Federal.
DeCripto replaces the old reporting model
The progress on cross-border data sharing is tied to DeCripto, a new reporting obligation created by Normative Instruction RFB No. 2,291, of 14 November 2025. The rule replaces the previous reporting model, based on Normative Instruction No. 1,888 of 2019, and aligns Brazil with the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), the OECD standard for the automatic exchange of information on crypto assets.
In practice, DeCripto expands and reorganises the information that must be reported to the Receita on digital asset operations. Transactions carried out from July 2026 onward are now reported under the new model, according to the tax authority itself.
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The aim is to bring crypto asset oversight closer to what already happens with foreign financial accounts. The Receita already takes part in international financial information exchange mechanisms such as CRS and FATCA, and is now also joining a network dedicated specifically to crypto assets. In a previous enforcement report, the agency had already said the rule update sought to reflect the market's evolution and align Brazil with CARF, which the country committed to adopting alongside the OECD.
The change matters because the crypto market allows investors to move funds between exchanges, personal wallets and foreign platforms more easily than in the traditional financial system. Without international cooperation, part of this information could remain out of reach for Brazil's tax authority, especially when it involves service providers based outside the country.
Under CARF, exchanges and crypto asset service providers in participating jurisdictions will report data that can be shared between tax administrations. This includes information on users, transactions and balances, in line with the formats defined for DeCripto and the international standard adopted.
Stablecoins raise the stakes for oversight
The move also comes at a time of strong growth in the reported volume of crypto assets in Brazil. Recent data from the Receita show that stablecoins already account for around 80% of the reported crypto asset volume in the country, led by dollar-pegged tokens such as USDT and USDC.
This growth helps explain the tax authority's concern. Unlike a one-off Bitcoin purchase for investment, stablecoins can be used for payments, remittances, currency hedging and transfers between platforms. This increases the Receita's interest in tracking operations that may involve undeclared income, illegal currency outflows, money laundering or the concealment of beneficial owners.
The briefing's main focus was operations against illegal betting. Regarding Operation Jogo de Sombras, Barreirinhas said the group under investigation moved more than 5 billion reais (around 838.5 million EUR) in 2025 and that the Receita expects to assess around 300 million reais (around 50.3 million EUR) in taxes based on the evidence identified so far.
Although crypto assets were not the central target of the operation, the secretary's remarks show how the topic has entered the Receita's broader radar in tackling asset-concealment structures. The DeCripto update and the coming cross-checking of data with foreign tax authorities suggest that digital asset operations carried out outside Brazil will become harder to keep out of sight of tax authorities.
For investors and companies, the practical consequence is an environment of greater transparency and higher risk of assessment in cases of omitted or inconsistent reporting. For the Receita, the new model expands its ability to cross-check data declared in Brazil with information received from abroad, reducing loopholes that previously made it harder to identify assets and crypto asset operations held outside the country.
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