Real estate tokenization in Brazil: who regulates what

When a platform advertises “tokenized real estate”, it is bundling several different things into a single word: a physical property, a right over that property (or over its income), a contract that defines that right, a digital record on a blockchain and a company that sells and holds those records. In Brazil, each of these pieces answers to a different authority.

This article is a map. It shows who regulates what, based on the rules and official documents in force or available on October 8, 2026. It does not replace a legal analysis of a specific case, and the rules on this subject have changed several times over the past two years.

The starting point: what is being sold

Tokenization is the representation of an asset, or of a right over it, by means of a digital record, the token, usually on a distributed ledger network (blockchain is the best-known example). The CVM (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, Brazil’s securities regulator) uses this definition, borrowed from IOSCO, the international organization of capital market regulators (CVM, Guidance Opinion 40, 2022).

The question that organizes everything else is: what exactly does the token give its buyer? It may be a stake in a company that owns the property, a right to part of the rent, a receivable or merely a contractual promise. The answer changes the regulator. The legal machinery behind a tokenization is explained in how real estate tokenization works.

Real Estate Registry and the Judiciary: who says who the owner is

In Brazil, ownership of real estate between living persons is transferred only when the title is registered at the Real Estate Registry (Registro de Imóveis). The Civil Code states that, until the title is registered, the seller “continues to be regarded as the owner of the property” (Civil Code, art. 1,245). Rights in rem over real estate, such as mortgages and usufruct, follow the same logic (art. 1,227 of the same code).

In practice, this means a token does not replace the property record (matrícula). Whoever appears on the matrícula is the owner in the eyes of the law, regardless of what is written on a blockchain.

Registry offices are overseen by the Judiciary. National rules come from the CNJ (National Council of Justice), through its National Inspectorate (Corregedoria Nacional), and the inspectorates of each state’s courts detail the local rules. One example of a national rule is CNJ Provision 143/2023, which created the National Registration Code (CNM), a standardized number identifying each property record in the country (CNJ, Provision 143/2023).

What the state inspectorates decided about tokens

The issue reached the states first, and the most recent trend has been one of restraint:

• Rio Grande do Sul, 2021. The General Inspectorate of Justice of the TJRS (Rio Grande do Sul state court) issued Provision 38/2021, which allowed deeds exchanging real estate for tokens. Among the conditions, the parties had to declare that the tokens “do not represent rights over the exchanged property itself”, and the acts had to be reported to Coaf, Brazil’s financial intelligence unit (TJRS, November 2021).
• Rio Grande do Sul, 2025. According to the real estate registrars’ portal, maintained by the National Operator of Electronic Real Estate Registration (ONR), the same inspectorate suspended the effects of that provision in a decision dated October 24, 2025. Registrars must now reject titles that associate real estate with tokens or with private ownership controls outside the official registration system (Registro de Imóveis do Brasil, November 2025).
• São Paulo, 2026. According to the same source, the General Inspectorate of Justice of São Paulo prohibited, in January 2026, linking a property’s matrícula to a blockchain token (Registro de Imóveis do Brasil, January 2026).

What about the CNJ? As of the date of this article, the editorial team has not located any CNJ regulation on real estate tokenization. The Rio Grande do Sul decision mentions a request by registrars to the CNJ for specific rules, Request for Measures (Pedido de Providências) 0006613-89.2025.2.00.0000 (Registro de Imóveis do Brasil, November 2025). Until it is decided, the rules vary by state.

Where the Federal Revenue Service comes in

The Receita Federal (Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service) runs the Brazilian Real Estate Register (CIB), a national database that assigns each property a seven-character code plus a check digit, in the format AAAAAAA-D. The registration obligation comes from Complementary Law 214/2025. According to the Receita Federal, the CIB does not replace the registry offices: “Each institution will continue to exercise its legal duties” (Receita Federal, CIB FAQ, updated January 2026). In 2026, the obligation applies to urban properties in state capitals and the Federal District; in other municipalities, from January 2027.

The channel’s video on the subject (in Portuguese) presents the CIB and the CNM as a kind of “taxpayer ID for the property” and points out that, to tokenize a property, you first need to know exactly which property is being represented. For this article, the editorial team did not verify specific Receita Federal rules on the taxation of real estate tokens; that point is outside this map.

CVM: when a token becomes a security

The CVM regulates the securities market. In its view, the fact that an asset is digital or on a blockchain “is irrelevant” to deciding whether it is a security (CVM, Guidance Opinion 40). What matters is its economic substance.

Guidance Opinion 40, from October 2022, distinguishes three types of tokens: payment, utility and asset-backed. Real estate tokens usually fall into the third group, which “may or may not be a security”. To decide, the CVM checks whether there is a collective investment contract, with six characteristics:

1. a contribution of money or of an asset with economic value;
2. a security or contract formalizing the relationship;
3. the collective nature of the investment;
4. an expectation of economic benefit;
5. a benefit that depends on the efforts of an entrepreneur or third party, not the investor;
6. a public offering, that is, fundraising from the general public.

The opinion also states that tokenization itself does not require prior CVM approval, but if securities are issued for public distribution, issuers and offerings are subject to capital market rules. The CVM FAQ page, updated in February 2026, cites tokenized receivables certificates and publicly offered collective investment contracts as examples of tokens that are securities (CVM, “Criptoativos: quando se aplicam as regras da CVM?”).

Receivables tokens and crowdfunding

In April 2023, the CVM’s technical staff published Circular Letter 4/2023/CVM/SSE on “receivables tokens” and “fixed income tokens”. According to the CVM, they may be securities, and offerings of up to R$ 15 million “can be reconciled” with the securitization and crowdfunding regimes (CVM, April 2023). The same note points out that classification as a security does not depend on a prior CVM statement: it is up to whoever structures the offering to carry out that analysis.

Investment crowdfunding is governed by CVM Resolution 88/2022. In the consolidated text consulted in October 2026, an offering made through a CVM-registered platform is exempt from registration if it raises at most R$ 15 million within up to 180 days. Ordinary investors may invest up to R$ 20,000 per year in these offerings, with exceptions for lead investors, qualified investors and other specified cases (CVM Resolution 88, consolidated text).

This rule is under review. In September 2025, the CVM opened a public consultation on a rule that would fully replace Resolution 88, with higher caps (for example, R$ 50 million for securitization companies) and progress on the “asset tokenization agenda” (CVM, September 2025). The new rule and the review of tokenization-focused regulations are on the CVM’s 2026 Regulatory Agenda (CVM, December 2025). As of October 8, 2026, the editorial team has not found the replacement rule published, so the limits above are those of the current rule.

Regulatory sandbox

The CVM also has a regulatory sandbox, an environment in which companies test new models with temporary exemptions from rules, currently provided for in CVM Resolution 29/2021. According to Guidance Opinion 40, in the first admission process the CVM received 33 proposals and approved four, three of them related to the tokenization of securities. Being in the sandbox is a limited, temporary authorization, not a seal of investment safety.

Central Bank: who intermediates and holds virtual assets

Law 14,478/2022, known as Brazil’s legal framework for crypto assets, created rules for virtual asset service providers, the companies that buy, sell, exchange, transfer or hold crypto assets on behalf of others. Decree 11,563/2023 gave the Banco Central do Brasil (Brazil’s central bank) the authority to regulate, authorize and supervise these companies (Law 14,478/2022; Decree 11,563/2023).

There are two important limits in this division:

• The law does not apply to assets that represent securities and “does not change any powers” of the CVM (art. 1, sole paragraph).
• The concept of virtual asset excludes representations of assets whose issuance, bookkeeping, trading or settlement is already provided for in law or regulation, such as securities and financial assets (art. 3, item IV).

For a real estate token, this means: if it is a security, the CVM regulates it, not the Central Bank. If it is not, and it is traded or held by a company on behalf of clients, that company’s activity may fall under the Central Bank’s rules.

These rules were published on November 10, 2025:

• BCB Resolution 519/2025: authorization processes for virtual asset service provider companies, among other institutions. In force since February 2, 2026 (BCB Resolution 519).
• BCB Resolution 520/2025: incorporation and operation of these companies and provision of the services by other authorized institutions. In force since February 2, 2026 (BCB Resolution 520).
• BCB Resolution 521/2025: brings virtual asset transactions under foreign exchange and international capital rules. Most of it has been in force since February 2, 2026, and some provisions since May 4, 2026 (BCB Resolution 521).

According to the Central Bank, providers need authorization, are subject to supervision and must disclose risks and fees clearly, with a transition period for those already operating (Banco Central, November 2025).

What about Drex?

Drex is the Central Bank’s infrastructure project for tokenized money and assets. It comes up often in conversations about real estate tokenization, but caution is needed. In May 2024, when updating the pilot’s rules, the Central Bank cited as an example that smart contracts could give the buyer and seller of a property more certainty about exchanging the money for the asset. In the same note, it said there was no date for tests with the public (Banco Central, May 2024).

In June 2025, the Central Bank’s general counsel described the pilot’s second phase as focused on cases such as bank certificates of deposit, government bonds and card receivables. He also said the strategy is “deliberately agnostic” about technology, with no commitment to full adoption of distributed ledger networks (Banco Central, June 2025). In the editorial team’s assessment, Drex is a project under development, not a channel through which you can buy a fraction of a property today. Be wary of anyone who uses the Drex name to give an offering an official air.

Cofeci: the dispute over who may regulate

The Cofeci (Federal Council of Real Estate Brokers) published Resolution 1,551/2025 in August 2025, creating accredited platforms for “digital real estate transactions” and the concept of the Digital Real Estate Token. The resolution itself excludes from its scope assets that are securities and the activity of providers authorized by the Central Bank (Cofeci, Resolution 1,551/2025).

The rule was challenged by registrars. According to the ONR portal, in February 2026 the 21st Federal Court of the Judicial Section of the Federal District declared it null, finding that it “exceeded its regulatory scope” and created a parallel registration system (Registro de Imóveis do Brasil, February 2026). This is a first-instance decision. The editorial team has not confirmed in an official source the status of any appeals.

The map in brief

Piece of the operation	Who regulates	Main basis
Property ownership and rights in rem	Real Estate Registry, overseen by the CNJ and state inspectorates	Civil Code, CNJ and court provisions
Cadastral identification of the property	Receita Federal (CIB) and CNJ (CNM)	LC 214/2025; CNJ Provision 143/2023
Token that works as a collective investment	CVM	Guidance Opinion 40; CVM Resolution 88
Company that trades or holds virtual assets that are not securities	Central Bank	Law 14,478/2022; BCB Resolutions 519, 520 and 521
Public infrastructure for tokenized assets	Central Bank (Drex, at project stage)	Pilot rules
Activity of real estate brokers	Cofeci-Creci system	Law 6,530/1978; Resolution 1,551/2025 challenged in court

How to use this map before investing

Some practical questions follow from this division:

• What does the token give me, in writing? If the contract does not make the right clear, no regulator can protect it.
• If it is an investment, where is the CVM? A public offering of a collective investment must follow CVM rules, for example through a registered crowdfunding platform.
• Does the company holding my tokens have Central Bank authorization, where applicable? Having applied for authorization is not the same as being authorized.
• Who is on the matrícula? The legal owner of the property is whoever appears on it. Ask for the certificate.

Even a regular offering does not eliminate investment risk: the property may lose value, the issuer may fail and the token may have no buyer. That point is the subject of why tokenizing an asset does not eliminate investment risk. If the offering promises guaranteed returns or pressures you to decide quickly, see also crypto scams: how to spot and report them.

Key takeaways

• There is no single authority for real estate tokenization. Registry offices, the CVM and the Central Bank handle different parts, and the classification depends on the right the token represents.
• As of October 2026, registry bodies tend not to accept tokens as proof of ownership; a national CNJ rule is still awaited.
• Before investing, identify which regulator should be involved in the offering and confirm, on its website, whether the company and the offering are regular.