Itau Unibanco Falls Into Crypto World, Offering Cryptocurrency Trading Services In Brazil

JAKARTA - Itau Unibanco, Brazil's largest bank, stepped into the crypto market by launching digital currency trading services. This service is aimed at the bank's investment platform clients. This is Itau's strategic step to keep up with the rapid development of digital assets.

Currently, the Itau crypto service only offers Bitcoin and Ether trading, the two most popular digital currencies. Not only that, Itau plans to add other digital currencies in the future, depending on crypto regulation in Brazil. Guto Antunes, head of digital assets in Itau, said the bank is committed to developing crypto offerings on an ongoing basis.

One of Itau's advantages in this crypto service is its role as a trustee. Antunes explained that Itau will not only facilitate crypto trading, but will also securely store client digital assets.

This is different from several Itau competitors, such as the MB crypto exchange, Mynt digital asset unit from the BTG Pactual investment bank, as well as global entities such as Binance. The Itau crypto service was launched amid dynamic changes in the Brazilian crypto sector.

Recently, two local players, brokerage firm XP and financial services firm PicPay, withdrew from the crypto market. They cited uncertainty in crypto regulation as the reason for their exit. This incident shows the challenges and opportunities that exist in the Brazilian crypto sector.