A Brazilian court has ordered the reopening of cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin Max’s bank accounts, which were closed without explanation by Banco do Brasil and Banco Santander in September. The two banks have reportedly reactivated the accounts to avoid paying fines.
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Threat of Fine Forces Banco Do Brasil and Banco Santander to Reactivate Exchange’s Accounts
According to local news site Portal do Bitcoin, Brazil’s Federal District Court promised to slap Santander with a fine of 5,000 real ($1,350) and Banco do Brasil with 20,000 real ($5,400) should both fail to comply with the preliminary judgement. Leonardo Ranna, a lawyer representing Bitcoin Max, said that all of the exchange’s accounts “have been restored, including those of exchange partners.”
In September, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), a transparency and competition body, started to investigate six of Brazil’s biggest banks after they closed accounts belonging to digital currency exchanges without explanation and refused to discuss the decision. The probe centred around allegations of “monopolistic practices … that could be limiting the action of brokers” within the cryptocurrency industry.
Results of the investigation are not yet known. The ruling against Banco Santander may only be temporary, however. The bank only complied on account of a “kind of injunction” that compelled it to reopen Bitcoin Max’s accounts within five days, Portal do Bitcoin reported. The injunction had been previously denied by a judge at a lower court, forcing the exchange’s lawyers to appeal to the Federal District Court.
The latest ruling by Ana Catarino, a judge with the higher court, was based on Banco Santander’s unilateral decision to close the exchange’s accounts without explanation, something that the court described as “abusive conduct that
