Brazilian stock exchange B3 launched six event contracts on April 27, including instruments linked to bitcoin price movements. Each contract is capped at 100 Brazilian reais (about $19), settled in cash, and restricted to professional investors holding at least 10 million reais in assets or a CVM technical certification. The move came three days after the National Monetary Council (CMN) published Resolution 5,298, which prohibits derivatives based on sports, political, and entertainment events while preserving those tied to economic and financial variables. The ban takes effect on May 4, with enforcement delegated to the securities regulator CVM.
Structure and Scope of B3's Event Contracts
The six contracts reference spot and mini futures movements of the Ibovespa index, the Brazilian real, and bitcoin. Their mechanical structure mirrors that of U.S.-based platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, but B3’s versions are authorized by the CVM. Luiz Masagão, B3’s EVP of Products and Clients, described the launch as part of a broader push to modernize the country's derivatives market; B3 already offers instruments tied to central bank decisions elsewhere. The exchange has offered bitcoin futures since April 2024, alongside derivatives for equities, currencies, commodities, and interest rates.
ANATEL Blocks 28 Foreign Platforms
On the same day, Finance Minister Dario Durigan and Civil House Minister Miriam Belchior announced that Brazil’s telecom regulator ANATEL had blocked access to 28 unauthorized prediction market platforms, including Polymarket and Kalshi. Régis Dudena, head of the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), said further blocks would follow for any platform outside the CMN’s permitted scope. The Instituto Brasileiro de Jogo Responsável, a trade body for licensed Brazilian operators, endorsed the resolution, framing it as a crackdown on “regulatory arbitrage” by foreign platforms.
Kalshi entered Brazil in January via a partnership with brokerage XP International. With Polymarket, Kalshi, and 26 other foreign platforms now blocked at the network level, B3 steps into a domestic market the government has effectively cleared. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that B3 also plans to launch a tokenization platform and a stablecoin before year-end. Global prediction markets have seen tens of billions in notional volume, and Brazil’s regulatory one-two punch leaves B3 as the sole federally authorized venue for such contracts.