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Itau Unibanco’s Ion platform now offers cryptocurrency trading for all customers
Itau Unibanco, the largest bank in Brazil and Latin America, has opened cryptocurrency trading for all its customers.
The bank’s investment application, Ion, allows customers to invest and trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) within the app. This was after the feature had first launched introduced in December 2023, when it was only available to a few users.
To gauge user interest and level of adoption, the bank conducted weekly surveys with its first group of users related to cryptocurrency trading. In a interview with the Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico, Guto Antunes, director of Itau Digital Assets, the response to the news was very favorable.
“We have interest and a partnership with Liqi but nothing regarding custody. The entire custody solution was built and managed with Itau architecture and with fiduciary responsibility,” Antunes explained.
Customized housing solution
Itau Unibanco reportedly wanted to protect its customers’ digital assets, so it created its own custody solution. Each user has a digital wallet with segregated funds intended to ensure the safety of the user’s funds and compliance with legislation. Antunes stressed that the bank wants to handle the custody function in-house rather than outsourcing it.
Currently, the bank only manages Bitcoin and Ethereum, but plans to diversify its currency portfolio. The bank is still seeking legal advice from the Central Bank of Brazil, specifically on stablecoins.
“We are in sync with the central bank in formulating the rules and want to expand appropriately,” Antunes said.
Being a regulated financial institution, Itau Unibanco is quite conservative in offering cryptocurrency-related services. The bank’s strategy of holding out until there are defined stablecoin guidelines demonstrates the bank’s compliance with regulations and risk management. This ensures that the bank’s cryptocurrency services do not pose a legal problem or present risks.
Regarding cryptocurrencies, Itau Unibanco has launched new services focused on trading and has been operating in the digital assets market since July 2022. The bank has introduced the tokenization activity and created a Digital Assets team to support companies in tokenizing their assets on the blockchain. This unit aims to help expand the use of blockchain technology in financial markets.
Competitive landscape in the cryptocurrency market in Brazil
Itau Unibanco’s entry into the cryptocurrency market means it will join other local and international companies engaged in trading, such as cryptocurrency exchange MB, BTG’s digital assets unit Pactual Mynt and Binance. As a result, the bank plans to use a large customer base and strong brand awareness to capture the market Brazilian cryptocurrency market.
Itau Unibanco, which has more than 60 million customers and around 100,000 employees, recently entered the cryptocurrency trading market, which can be considered the integration of digital assets into the traditional financial sector. The Ion platform has already launched over 3 million users and gained popularity. This is because the app, downloaded 5 million times on Android and iOS platforms, will fuel the use of cryptocurrencies in Brazil.