Rio de Janeiro is planning on investing in cryptocurrency, according to a Sunday (Jan. 16) Bitcoin.com report, with Mayor Eduardo Paes saying they’ll “launch Crypto Rio and invest 1% of the Treasury in cryptocurrency.”
Paes made the comments in a joint lecture at Rio Innovation Week, where he appeared alongside Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. The report says Suarez has also rolled out MiamiCoin for the Florida city, and has also invested in crypto in the recent past.
Paes plans to follow along the same lines as Suarez, establishing tax incentives and discounts for users who pay certain taxes with bitcoin.
According to Chicão Bulhões, secretary of the economic development and innovation team, the idea is to attract more companies involved with cryptocurrency from other regions of the country.
Bulhões said the tax incentives are already approved and that they “want to focus a lot on the Porto region for the arrival of these new actors, as well.”
Suarez said investing in cryptocurrency had done well for Miami, making opportunities for investors and offering crypto tax incentives.
“We created a tsunami of opportunity,” Suarez said at the lecture. “Many cities in the United States were raising taxes, and we lowered them. We understood that we could be at the forefront of innovation and we invited creators here.”
PYMNTS writes that MiamiCoin has generated around $8 million in the last two months, and Suarez’s ambitions include making the city an innovation hub for crypto.
According to Suarez, crypto could change the way things are funded. The City of Miami will also be able to generate $60 million in the next year, which could help fight poverty.
The MiamiCoin was initially debuted last August and is powered by CityCoins, a blockchain project that lets people invest in cities through buying or mining the corresponding tokens. This can help out with things like yields for bitcoins and Stacks tokens.
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