Brazil has imposed a blanket ban on non-financial prediction market contracts. On April 24, the country’s National Monetary Council issued Resolution No. 5,298, barring derivative contracts tied to non-financial underlying events. The restriction covers real sports events, virtual online gaming events, and real or virtual political, electoral, social, cultural, and entertainment events.
The resolution draws a hard line between those contracts and traditional financial derivatives. Instruments linked to economic and financial benchmarks remain permitted, including price or rate indices, securities indices, bond indices, interest rates, exchange rates, and the prices of commodities, financial assets, and securities traded on organized exchanges and over-the-counter markets.
Regulators classify prediction markets alongside fixed-odds betting
The move followed a technical note from Brazil’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, or SPA. The gambling regulator said prediction market platforms “simply reproduce the essential elements of fixed quota bets.” That view helped set the basis for the broader restriction now in force, sharply limiting room for derivative trading tied to non-financial outcomes in the country.
Hashrate Index sees room for Latam mining expansion
At the same time, Latin America’s profile in bitcoin mining is getting stronger. In its report, The State of Bitcoin Mining in Latin America (2026), Hashrate Index said the global mining map is still led by the U.S., China, and Russia, but the region could become a much larger participant.
The report said Paraguay ranks fourth among countries hosting bitcoin hashrate, with 43 EH/s and 4.3% of global hashrate. Beyond Paraguay, Brazil and Venezuela were identified as markets with strong growth potential. Brazil stood out with a 133% year-over-year increase in hashrate share. According to the report, miners there can now negotiate directly with companies in the power generation market to lock in tariffs, avoiding distributor charges and other surcharges. That changes project economics in a meaningful way.
Venezuela presents a different case. Hashrate Index said the country still records 5 EH/s under current conditions, indicating that a notable amount of mining capacity could still be developed.
Itaú Ventures backs mobile bitcoin mining
Brazil’s banking sector is also moving into the space. Local media reported that Itau Ventures, the investment arm of Itaú, invested in Minter, a company focused on bitcoin mining and data center infrastructure. The amount was not formally disclosed, though the report said the investment could reach $10 million.
Minter is targeting curtailment, a major issue for green energy projects. The company combines hardware usually kept in fixed locations with mobile containers, allowing bitcoin mining operations to be deployed directly where renewable energy is produced. That setup is aimed at using electricity that would otherwise be wasted or never delivered, giving energy producers another way to capture value from excess generation.