Brazil's Top Bank Unveils Crypto Trading for 60M Users

One of the biggest banks in Brazil, Itau Unibanco, has deemed it necessary to provide customers with the possibility of crypto trading for 60M users. This move by Itau Unibanco follows the time when the bank attempted to extend this feature to a few selected individuals to find out if users had any desire to use this service or not. However, after noticing increased traffic on the trial, the bank decided to make this feature on the platform available to all its users.

According to reports, the chief of Itaú Digital Assets, Guto Antunes, mentioned that there was strong acceptance for the crypto trading service. The bank carried out weekly questionnaires with the trial participants.

"The entire custody solution was designed and implemented within Itaú with our fiduciary duty in mind,” Antunes mentioned that this child custody app has been introduced independently. Antunes has disclosed to the press that the application has been installed on more than 3.5 million Android and iOS gadgets.

The cryptocurrency industry is worth around US$2.45 trillion (approximately Rs. 20,475 crores) and has more than 2.4 million cryptocurrencies available, According to CoinMarketCap.

According to a report by Binance, the number of people in Brazil using cryptocurrencies is anticipated to increase to 11 million in 2024, should it continue its growth pace of 186% from January to July of this year. Additionally, Statista has estimated that Brazil's cryptocurrency market might reach a staggering US$1,094 million (approximately Rs. 9,141 crore) by the year-end 2024.

These statistics show an increase in the crypto sector in Brazil, which also influenced Itau Unibanco's decision to open crypto trading services to its millions of customers.

Brazil has taken over the presidency of the G20, an association of twenty leading nations, from India. It is currently partnering with international financial agencies, which are trying to determine the rules for the new areas of the crypto and Web3 industry at large during its presidency. Brazil will also likely release the second phase of crypto rules by the end of 2024, which will range from July to December.