The financial institution’s 60 million clients can now purchase BTC and ETH by way of the agency’s Ion app.
The most important banking establishment in Latin America has opened the doorways for all of its purchasers to get publicity to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Itaú Unibanco, Brazil’s largest financial institution by belongings below administration, is now providing BTC and ETH buying and selling to its greater than 60 million purchasers. Customers can entry each tokens by way of the corporate’s Ion app.
In December 2023, Itaú launched the cryptocurrency buying and selling platform for choose purchasers. In line with the agency’s Head of Digital Property, Guto Antunes, the financial institution determined to develop its operations attributable to weekly surveys displaying excessive demand for crypto companies.
Though the corporate is simply providing the 2 largest belongings by market capitalization, the thought is so as to add assist for different tokens sooner or later. “It starts with bitcoin, but our overarching strategic plan is to expand to other crypto assets in the future,” Antunes stated final 12 months.
Establishments in Brazil have been relentlessly pushing the envelope with regards to crypto companies within the nation. Alongside Itaú’s crypto buying and selling platform unveiled final 12 months, Brazilian neobank Nubank partnered with Circle to supply USDC entry to the corporate’s 80 million clients.
Latin America is quietly changing into a regional powerhouse when it comes to crypto adoption. Just lately, a grassroots Argentinean group referred to as Crecimiento revealed plans to create a Crypto Silicon Valley in Buenos Aires. Throughout the Andes, Chile has been paving the best way for friendlier regulation when it comes to fintech corporations, with the nation approving a brand new monetary applied sciences legislation in 2023.
And the area is one which desperately wants extra monetary inclusion. It’s residence to greater than 650 million folks, of which 122 million are unbanked, whereas residents of a number of nations grapple with double and triple-digit inflation.
