Itau Unibanco, considered the largest bank in Brazil, has decided to open crypto trading services for its massive user base of over 60 million. This step by Itau Unibanco comes after the bank tried to offer this functionality to a small group of select users to check if users were interested in accessing this service. After receiving a positive response from the test, the bank has decided to roll out this crypto trading feature to all its users.
Guto Antunes, the head of Itaú Digital Assets, said that the acceptance of the crypto trading service was high. The bank had conducted weekly surveys with customers who were part of the tests.
“The entire custody solution has been designed and implemented within Itaú with our fiduciary duty in mind,” said Antunes. This custody solution has been released as a standalone application. As Antunes explained to the media, the application has already been launched. downloaded over 3.5 million on Android and iOS devices.
The crypto sector is currently valued at $2.45 trillion (roughly Rs. 20,475 crore) with more than 2.4 million cryptocurrencies in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap.
According to a Binance report, Brazil's crypto user base is expected to grow to 11 million by 2024 if it maintains its 2023 growth rate of 186 percent from January to July. In another report, Statista has projected that Brazil's crypto market could be valued at $1.094 billion (roughly Rs. 9.141 billion) by the end of 2024.
These statistics indicating a growing crypto sector in Brazil could also have contributed to Itau Unibanco's decision to open up crypto trading services to its massive user base.
Brazil currently serves as president of the G20 group of nations, succeeding India in the post. As part of its presidency, the country is working with global financial watchdogs to figure out laws to regulate the crypto sector and Web3 in general. The country is expected to introduce the second phase of crypto rules by the end of 2024.
