Brazils Biggest Bank Rolls Out Bitcoin and Ether Trading for All Customers

Itaú Unibanco, Brazil’s Largest Bank, Extends Bitcoin and Ether Trading to All Customers


By: Sujha Sundararajan
Updated: June 12, 2024, 06:41 EDT
| Duration: 1 min read


Itaú Unibanco, a prominent private bank in Latin America with over 60 million customers, has recently announced the expansion of its Bitcoin and Ether trading services to all of its customers.
The bank initially introduced the option to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through its investment platform called ‘Ion’ in December 2023. Starting with a select group of clients, Itaú gradually made the services available to a wider audience via the platform’s app.
In a recent interview with a local publication, Guto Antunes, the head of Itaú Digital Assets, confirmed the bank’s decision. He mentioned that the bank had been conducting weekly surveys with customers who were eligible for cryptocurrency transactions.
The surveys revealed a high level of acceptance among clients, who expressed significant trust in Itaú’s custody services. Notably, the bank did not rely on third-party providers to secure customers’ crypto wallets, but instead developed an internal tool. However, Itaú collaborated with tokenizer Liqi to enhance the solution.
In compliance with the Central Bank of Brazil
Moreover, Antunes stated that the bank had created individual digital wallets for each client to meet the asset segregation requirements mandated by the Central Bank of Brazil in the current cryptocurrency regulation framework.
Brazil’s central bank is in the process of dividing the cryptocurrency regulation into various stages, with regulatory proposals anticipated to be released by the end of the year.
Itaú’s ‘Ion’ app has already garnered over 3.5 million downloads on both Android and iOS platforms, according to Antunes. He highlighted that even during the gradual rollout, this was a significant number within the crypto community and a pleasant surprise.
Currently, the bank supports trading in Bitcoin and Ether, with plans to include other cryptocurrencies as customer demand grows. However, the expansion is contingent upon regulatory risk assessments, as mentioned by Antunes.
Furthermore, Itaú is looking forward to clearer guidelines from the Central Bank regarding stablecoin operations in Brazil.
Antunes mentioned that the main challenge during the testing phase was training managers to provide advice to clients on the new asset class. “We developed a network-first solution, an AI chatbot, that experts and managers can access to address key customer inquiries,” he explained.
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