The mayor of Rio de Janeiro said Thursday he plans to allocate 1% of Brazil’s second-most populous city’s treasury reserves to cryptocurrencies, according to a Globo report.
- “We are going to launch Crypto Rio and invest 1% of the treasury in cryptocurrency,” Eduardo Paes said at the Rio Innovation Week.
- According to Pedro Paulo, Rio de Janeiro’s finance secretary, the city plans to apply discounts to tax payments made with bitcoin. “You take the single quota discount of 7%, it would make 10% if you pay in bitcoin,” Paulo said, adding that the administration needs to study the legal framework.
- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez also spoke at the event, and discussed the challenges in transforming cities into technological hubs. In February, Saurez told CoinDesk he plans to place a portion of the Miami treasury in bitcoin.
Read more: Miami Mayor Suarez to Take Next Paycheck in Bitcoin
CORRECTION (Jan. 14, 14:08 UTC): Replaces references to bitcoin in headline, first paragraph and first bullet with the more general cryptocurrencies.