The Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) published Comunicado nº 45.986 on Monday, 21 September 2026, listing Onda Finance Sociedade Prestadora de Serviços de Ativos Virtuais Ltda. as an institution in a virtual-asset service provider (VASP) authorization process. Coverage the same week from Livecoins, BitNotícias, Exame, Let’s Money and SpaceMoney treats that listing as the first named crypto firm to appear in a formal BCB VASP authorization file.

The central bank’s public viewer for the comunicado is JavaScript-heavy; the facts below follow those outlets quoting the same numbered act.

What Comunicado nº 45.986 actually does

The act submits three directors for BCB review: Matheus Luiz Puppe Magalhães, Nildson Ferreira Alves (CEO) and Renato Gomes Lima. BitNotícias reports the file sits with GTSP3 (Gerência Técnica em São Paulo) and is signed by Carolina Pancotto Bohrer, head of the Departamento de Organização do Sistema Financeiro. Names go into Unicad, the BCB’s information system on supervised entities, and the people named have a right of access to their own process.

Publication starts a 15-day window for public objections. BitNotícias, reading the comunicado, says objections must identify their authors, attach supporting documents, and go through the BCB’s Protocolo Digital under the subject line for authorizations and licensing of supervised institutions and SPB participants, with the responsible team in the destination field. The BCB did not set a date for a final decision.

The same comunicado also names BTG Pactual Serviços Financeiros DTVM, Sicoob DTVM, Conta Simples SCD and Magen Instituição de Pagamento. Those four are ordinary financial institutions on a directors-review list. Onda is the only name styled as a Sociedade Prestadora de Serviços de Ativos Virtuais: one VASP plus four non-crypto houses on the same sheet.

The BCB’s own label, quoted across those reports, is “instituição em processo de autorização”. That is a queue, not a final VASP license, and no outlet has a grant date.

What Onda Finance actually sells

Onda’s site describes a Brazilian fintech for companies moving money across borders: international payments, multi-currency accounts, a corporate card, treasury, and API access. Livecoins and Exame add the crypto-specific layer that put it on this list, stablecoin settlement and crypto custody. BitNotícias, citing partner materials, also says Onda uses Fireblocks for wallet management and market connectivity. We have no independently verified user counts, assets under custody, or dollar volumes, and we are not repeating marketing dashboards as facts.

CEO Nildson Alves, speaking to Livecoins, put the listing in those terms: “Estar na linha de frente do processo de autorização do Banco Central valida todo o trabalho que fizemos desde o primeiro dia para erguer uma operação sólida e transparente.” He added that regulation separates who has long-term structure, and that Onda’s focus is a bridge between traditional markets and virtual assets for companies and investors.

October 30 is still the filing clock

This first named VASP lands inside a deadline we already walk in the Resolução BCB nº 520 explainer. Incumbent platforms that were already serving Brazil when Resoluções BCB 519 and 520 took effect on 2 February 2026 have until 30 October 2026 to file for authorization as a sociedade prestadora de serviços de ativos virtuais (SPSAV). Filing, not a final stamp, is the gate that generally lets a firm keep operating while the review runs. After that date, BCB-authorized banks and payment institutions are broadly barred from virtual-asset operations with counterparties that are neither authorized nor already in the queue.

Minimum capital in the same package is often cited in a band of R$10.8 million to R$37.2 million, depending on the mix of activity and risk, including in BitNotícias’ and Let’s Money’s write-ups of this comunicado. That band is the public floor for remaining inside the supervised perimeter. Onda has not published its own capital figure.

The queue is arriving after several retail venues chose the other door. BitNotícias lists Digitra.com (August: no authorization request, wind-down of Brazil trading and custody) and Coinext (early September: retail exit after saying it could not meet the regulatory capital minimum). Those exits explain why a named file is news. They say nothing about Onda’s books.

Stablecoin payments are the other reason a VASP charter belongs in the lede. Resolução BCB nº 561 already pulled virtual-asset settlement out of the pure eFX (electronic foreign exchange) track. A firm that wants a supervised path to move value with stablecoins across borders is being pushed onto the VASP/FX stack, which is the stack Onda is lining up for.

Takeaway

Brazil now has a public VASP name in the BCB authorization process: a São Paulo payments and custody fintech, three directors on a 15-day comment clock, and a little more than a month until the 30 October filing deadline for everyone else still operating. Watch the next comunicados for more names; watch your own platform for a filed-and-in-process status, because sitting outside that queue is how bank rails get cut. If you hold coins on a Brazilian venue, a withdrawal to an address you control is still the way to keep the keys off someone else’s wind-down calendar. None of this is financial advice, and none of it is a pitch for Onda or any other intermediary.