Mercado Livre x Apple, founder of FTX tries to explain himself and what matters in the market

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Mercado Livre sues Apple at Cade

Mercado Livre said on Monday that it had taken action against regulatory bodies in Brazil and Mexico against practices by Apple that it considers anti-competitive.

Understand: Latin America’s largest retailer is questioning rules that prevent it from offering video, music and book streaming services from competitors of the American company in these segments in its iOS app.

Mercado Livre sued antitrust authorities in Brazil (Cade) and Mexico, its two main markets. Apple has not commented on the matter.

Not the only one: other global giants and government officials are challenging what they see as Apple’s anti-competitive rules.

• Although to a lesser extent, the complaints are also directed at Google, owner of the Android operating system.

In justice: the obligation of the App Store payment system is the subject of a long process brought by the studio Epic Games, of the popular “Fortnite”.

• The Epic v Apple lawsuit returned to court last month after both parties appealed the latest decision.

What changes (and doesn’t change) with the crypto framework

Last Tuesday (29), the Chamber approved a bill that regulates the crypto market in Brazil. The proposal awaits sanction from President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The measure is very generic and, in practice, brings as the only relevant change the obligation that brokers have their headquarters in the country to provide service.

Accordingly with the Panel SA column, the BC (Central Bank), which should be the regulatory body for this market, will toughen the measures that were not delimited in the project.

One of them is the one that was the subject of the most discussion between Brazilian and foreign brokerages in the process of the project: asset segregation.

• It was removed from the text approved by the Chamber, but should be part of BC regulations, according to Panel SA

Other point regulated by the project approved in Congress was the classification of crimes with virtual assets.

• The Penal Code now considers fraud involving the use of virtual assets, securities or financial assets as a case of embezzlement, with a penalty of four to eight years in prison, in addition to a fine.

‘I screwed up,’ says FTX founder

After seeing his fortune and prestige in the crypto world turn to dust, FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, is on a media campaign to apologize.

One of the interviews with the 30-year-old American was made by the Financial Times via video call from his mansion in the Bahamas. The conversation was reproduced by Sheet🇧🇷

• The former tycoon admitted in interviews what he called “huge oversights and screw-ups” and a lack of “rigorous thinking”.

Remember: FTX became the second largest exchange (crypto brokerage) in the world by trading volume, with a market cap of US$ 32 billion. A liquidity crisis in early November, however, led to bankruptcy.

• Today, the exchange has a deficit of $8 billion with customers, at least 1 million creditors, and SBF faces criminal and civil lawsuits.

The problems that caused FTX’s demise arose at the trading firm Alameda Research, in which SBF was a majority shareholder. She took advantage of FTX’s structure and money to gamble on risky investments that didn’t pay off.

Asked by the Financial Times how the big increase in loans to Alameda was approved by the FTX, he said:

• “I don’t feel good about not knowing the answer.”

SBF denied intentional wrongdoingblamed his own “massive management failures” and said he only fully realized FTX’s perilous financial state days before it was forced to file for bankruptcy in early November.

PEC and USA bring down the stock market

On a day of lower trading volume due to Brazil’s World Cup match, local financial market indicators ended up registering their worst day since November 25th.

in numbers: this Monday, the Ibovespa fell 2.3%at 109,380 points, while the dollar accelerated 1.32%at BRL 5.28.

• In the futures interest market, a thermometer of risk aversion here in Brazil, the contract maturing in 2024 increased from 13.82% to 14%. The title for 2027 went from 12.49% to 12.75%.

Which explains:

In Brazilinvestors closely follow the progress of the Transition PEC, which should be voted on this week in the Senate.

• THE Sheet showed that the approval scenario in Congress involves an extra hole between R$ 135 billion and R$ 150 billion for a period of two years.

In the USAthe indices fell after service sector numbers there saw an unexpected acceleration.

• The result came in the wake of Friday’s survey that showed a still heated job market and helped lower expectations for a quick drop in interest rates there.

The week will have events that will be closely monitored by the market: in addition to the possible appreciation of the PEC in the Senate, there will also be decisions on interest rates in Brazil and the US.