By Eduardo Cramer Ono
On October 13, 2025, the 21st Federal Court of the Federal District suspended the effects of COFECI Resolution No. 1,551/2025, issued by the Federal Council of Real Estate Brokers (COFECI) with the purpose of regulating real estate tokenization in Brazil.
The decision was rendered in a lawsuit filed by the National Operator of the Electronic Real Estate Registry System (ONR) and, as stated in a prior publication, the resolution had already been challenged by the Real Estate Registry Thought Commission of the Brazilian Institute of Real Estate Registry (CPRI/IRIB) in Technical Note CPRI/IRIB No. 01/2025.
In granting the suspension as a provisional measure, Substitute Federal Judge Francisco Valle Brum emphasized that COFECI’s regulatory authority is limited to the ethical and technical regulation of the real estate brokerage profession. According to the judge, by issuing Resolution No. 1,551/2025, COFECI “usurped the exclusive regulatory authority of the Federal Government by establishing rules pertaining to Civil Law and Public Registries (…), as well as the authority of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) to regulate the matter.”
In addition, the ruling noted that the resolution (i) failed to observe the principle of mitigated taxativity governing real rights, as it created its own type of separate estate in a fiduciary ownership structure detached from material ownership; (ii) contravened the Public Registries Law (Law No. 6,015/1973) and Article 76 of Law No. 13,456/2017 by creating a legal framework for the transfer of digital assets over real property through platforms parallel to the public registry; and (iii) usurped the ONR’s authority to accredit real estate platforms for digital transactions and to carry out digital real estate transactions involving digital real estate tokens.
Therefore, COFECI Resolution No. 1,551/2025 remains suspended and cannot produce effects unless a decision to the contrary is issued. Companies in the sector should increase their scrutiny when assessing business models involving digital assets linked to real estate, given the current legal uncertainty surrounding the matter.
