The Central Bank of Brazil has excluded crypto companies from participating in its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot. Although the bank did not explicitly exclude crypto firms, it requires all participants to be registered and regulated finance or fintech providers, which excludes crypto companies as they are not currently regulated under Brazilian law. The bank aims to launch its CBDC later this year and is looking for firms with experience in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and distributed ledger technology (DLT) to test transactions involving the digital real. The bank will select 10 firms to participate in the pilot, and the deadline for applications is May 12.