Rio de Janeiro to invest part of the city’s treasure reserves in crypto

Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes intends to invest part of the city’s treasury in digital currencies. According to local media, Paes will also establish a working party on this issue.

During his speech at the Rio Innovation Week online conference, Paes said that the city authorities plan to create Rio de Janeiro’s cryptocurrency – Crypto Rio, and invest 1% of the municipal treasury in it.

The head of the city is going to make significant efforts to turn Rio into the crypto center of South America. The mayor also has highly appreciated the actions of his colleague Francis Suarez, who last year set up the MiamiCoin project, which made the city a profit of more than $7 million in two months. Moreover, the city token has appeared in New York. The protocol created by CityCoins is used for mining.

Paes thinks that Rio de Janeiro has the capability to become the innovation capital of the country. The city’s economy is one of the largest in Latin America and one of the fastest growing in the world. Additionally, the Brazilian authorities are examining a bill to recognize Bitcoins as legal tender following El Salvador.

Pedro Paulo, Rio’s Secretary of Finance and Planning, said that the authorities are also considering the possibility of offering a discount of 10% on property taxes paid with Bitcoin. However, first it will be necessary to make the required legislative amendments. Tax benefits will help to provoke interest of investors and will contribute to the development of the region.

Last year, the mayor of Miami decided to reduce taxes and allow residents to use digital currencies to pay them. This step has made it possible to attract several large companies from Silicon Valley to Miami.

Eduardo Paes is not the first Brazilian politician to demonstrate a positive attitude towards cryptocurrencies. In November last year, Luiz Goularte Alves, a member of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, proposed a bill allowing employees of the public and private sectors to get salaries in Bitcoin. If the law is passed, employees will be able to choose what percentage of salary they will get in cryptocurrency, and which in fiat currency. However, first an employee will need to agree on the decision with the employer.

A recent study conducted by deVere group showed that more than half of the Y and Z generations want to receive 50% of their salaries in digital currencies.