Itaú Unibanco, commonly known as the largest bank in Brazil, has announced its decision to open crypto trading services for its 60 million registered customers.
Rollout Follows Positive Response From Trial Run
This step from Itaú Unibanco comes after a successful trial period.
Before committing to a mass roll-out, the bank ran a trial period to ensure users were interested in the service. During the trial, the bank offered crypto services to a select group of customers. The bank had conducted surveys on a weekly basis with trial participants to monitor sentiment.
The response from the trial was overwhelmingly positive, leading to the bank offering a full roll-out of crypto trading services to all customers.
In a recent interview, Head of Digital Assets at Itaú Unibanco, Guto Antunes, said that the acceptance of the crypto trading service was extremely positive.
JUST IN: Itau Unibanco, the largest bank of Latin America, has made #Bitcoin and #Crypto trading available for all users. pic.twitter.com/4xR718NLSU
— Crypto India (@CryptooIndia) June 12, 2024
In the same interview, Antunes said, “The entire custody solution was designed and implemented within Itaú with our fiduciary duty in mind”.
The crypto services product has been launched alongside a separate app to the banks native mobile app. According to Antunes, the new app has already been downloaded on over 3.5 million across both Android and iOS devices.
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Crypto In Brazil Heading For Mass Adoption
In a Binance square post from December 2023, it was stated that Brazil’s crypto user base is expected to grow to 11 million in 2024. These figures indicate a huge boom for the crypto sector in Brazil and is a likely contributing factor in Itau Unibanco’s decision to open crypto trading services to its extensive user base.
Brazil to Unveil Second Phase of Crypto Rules by End of 2024.
Succeeding India as President of G20 Group of Nations for 2024, Finance Track work around enforcing globally workable crypto rules is among G20 Brasil top priorities https://t.co/t54ERqTTK8— toujours tat (@toujoursTat) May 22, 2024
Brazil has recently taken over as President of the G20 group of nations. It succeeded previous president India in December 2023. As part of its presidency, the country has announced plans to collaborate with global financial watchdogs. The plan is to create a set of laws to help regulate the cryptocurrency industry. The country is expected to announce the second stage of its new crypto rules by fall 2024.
Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You could lose all of your capital.