Brazil’s Largest Bank Opens Crypto Trading for Over 60 Million of Its Users

Itau Unibanco, touted as the largest bank in Brazil, has decided to open crypto trading services for its massive userbase of over 60 million. This step from Itau Unibanco comes after the bank tried offering this functionality to a small bunch of select users to check if users were interested in accessing this service at all. After having received a positive response from the trial, the bank has decided to roll out this crypto trading feature to all of its users.

Guto Antunes, the head of Itaú Digital Assets reportedly said that the acceptance of the crypto trading service was high. The bank had conducted weekly surveys with the clients that were part of the trials.

"The entire custody solution was designed and implemented within Itaú with our fiduciary duty in mind,” Antunes was quoted as saying. This custody solution has been launched as a separate app. According to what Antunes has told the media, the app has already been downloaded on over 3.5 million on Android and iOS devices.

The crypto sector is presently valued at $2.45 trillion (roughly Rs. 20,475 crore) with over 2.4 million cryptocurrencies in circulation, as per CoinMarketCap.

As per a report by Binance, Brazil's crypto user base is expected to grow to 11 million in 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 a whopping $1,094 million (roughly Rs. 9,141 crore) by the end of 2024.

These statistics indicating a growth of the crypto sector in Brazil could also have contributed to Itau Unibanco's decision to opening crypto trading services to its massive userbase.

Brazil is currently serving as the President of the G20 group of nations, succeeding India to the position. As part of its presidency, the country is working with global financial watchdogs to figure out laws to regulate the crypto and Web3 sector at large. The country is expected to unveil the second phase of crypto rules by the end of 2024.