THE BRAZILIAN CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE WON THE CASE OF CLOSING A BANK ACCOUNT

The court of Rio de Janeiro ruled in favor of the Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin in the case of closing one of its current accounts. The court rejected an appeal filed by Banco Sicoob against the decision of the district court in Barra da Tijuca, which granted the exchange the right to keep its account open.

According to the judge Regina Lucia Passos, there must be a valid reason for closing the account, but the Bank could not provide it, according to the local newspaper Portal do Bitcoin. Passos claims that despite the warning about “the risks associated with the storage and trading of so-called virtual currencies”, the Central Bank of Brazil did not prohibit the trading of digital coins.

The judge also insisted that Sicoob did not suffer any losses due to the maintenance of the Mercado Bitcoin account. She added that by closing it unilaterally and stating only that there was no commercial interest, the Bank had in fact violated Brazilian Central Bank regulation No. 2025/93. The document States that the financial institution must clearly determine the reason for such action.

Portal do Bitcoin notes that the court decision may not be final, but, nevertheless, for Mercado Bitcoin it is a victory. Last year, the exchange lost a lawsuit over the closure of its account. In October, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that banks have the right to close cryptocurrency-related accounts without explanation. The court stated that the cryptocurrency trading platform must prove that any constitutional norms have been violated and submit the case to the Supreme Court.

This is not the first time that Brazilian courts have ruled in favor of cryptocurrency exchanges when it comes to considering banking services. In November, the court ordered the banks to reopen the accounts of the Bitcoin Max cryptocurrency exchange, which were blocked without explanation by the banks Banco do Brasil and Banco Santander in September.