5th April 2025 – (Brasilia) Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (STJ) has ruled that judges can now order the freezing of cryptocurrency assets to recover unpaid debts, marking a significant change in the treatment of digital currencies within the country’s legal framework.

The unanimous decision from the STJ’s Third Panel empowers courts to notify cryptocurrency exchanges and seize a debtor’s digital holdings, akin to the freezing of traditional bank accounts for legal enforcement, according to reports from Cryptopolitan.

“Although they are not legal tender, crypto assets can be utilised as a form of payment and a store of value,” the court noted,…