Rio de Janeiro is reportedly rolling out supporting features for tax-related Bitcoin (BTC) payments for urban real estate situated inside of the city’s limit. 

Specifically, the finalization for the implementation of this new pro-crypto, tax-focused development is reportedly going to be from 2023, which was disclosed by the Secretary of Economic Development, Innovation, and Simplification, Chicão Bulhões.

Current Head of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, reportedly thew his weight behind this initiative, carried out by the Brazilian Mayor Eduardo Paes, via establishing a new office in the area, further sharing that “He‘s done his part. We are working on ours.

The introduction of this project will reportedly help Rio de Janeiro take the pioneering role as the first Brazil-based urban area to introduce BTC payments to the mainstream. 

“To enable the operation, the municipality will hire companies specialized in converting crypto assets into reais. In this way, the City Hall will receive 100% of the amount in the currency.”

Brazilian secretary Pedro Paulo also shared his acknowledgment of the city’s goal – with this new decision to legally include crypto-enabled payment – is reportedly to build a solid market of this new asset class in the city. 

“We will stimulate the circulation of cryptocurrencies by integrating them into the payment of taxes, as in the case of IPTU and, in the future, this can be expanded to services such as taxi races, for example.”

The city has additional plans down its pipeline to include non-fungible tokens (NFT)-based governance policies throughout a wide variety of markets including arts, culture, and tourism.