Fidelity: Rio de Janeiro Crypto Adoption is Only the Beginning

Rio De Janeiro is putting crypto on its balance sheet, and it won’t be long before other governments get FOMO, Fidelity researchers said

article-image

Rio de Janeiro. Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said the Brazilian city will put 1% of its treasury into crypto
  • The announcement is in line with Fidelity Digital Asset researchers’ predictions

Brazil’s second-largest city is allocating 1% of its treasury to cryptocurrencies, Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes said Friday. 

The announcement confirms a 2022 prediction from Fidelity Digital Asset researchers: that more governments and central banks will acquire digital assets. It comes down to keeping up appearances and staying on top of new innovations, they said. 

“We also think there is very high stakes game theory at play here, whereby if bitcoin adoption increases, the countries that secure some bitcoin today will be better off competitively than their peers,” Fidelity Digital Asset researchers wrote in a report published on Jan. 6, 2022. 

Other cities and sovereign states are going to have to start thinking ahead if they want to maintain an edge, even if the value proposition of cryptocurrencies is not immediately clear, researchers said. 

“While Rio de Janeiro is a city, and technically the mayor mentioned cryptocurrency, not bitcoin specifically, we see the overall game theory as the same,” said Chris Kuiper, head of research at Fidelity Digital Assets. “In other words, entities are viewing bitcoin acquisition now as a small insurance premium to pay.” 

Paes also mentioned plans to offer citizens who pay property taxes (known in Brazil as IPTU) in bitcoins a discount, according to a report from the Brazilian newspaper O Globo

Long-time cryptocurrency fan Miami Mayor Francis Suarez also spoke at the Rio Innovation Week summit where Paes made the announcement. Suarez is looking to allocate a portion of Miami’s treasury to digital assets, he said last year. 


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

The convergence of DePIN and energy generation aims to address modern grid challenges by incentivizing distributed generation.

article-image

Stripe announced Stablecoin Financial Accounts, which will allow businesses to have “stablecoin-powered accounts”

article-image

The deal is made up of $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase’s Class A common stock

article-image

Blockworks Research uses numbers to help crypto advance to a higher stage of storytelling

article-image

While Arizona’s governor could veto another crypto reserve bill, similar North Carolina and Texas laws are approaching the finish line

article-image

However, they noted there’s now an increased risk that unemployment and inflation will rise in the coming months.