Regulation
Itau Unibanco’s Ion platform now offers crypto trading to all clients
Itau Unibanco, the largest bank in Brazil and Latin America, has opened cryptocurrency trading to all its clients.
The bank’s investment app, Ion, allows customers to invest and trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) within the app. This happened after the first feature introduced in December 2023, when it was only available to a few users.
To gauge user interest and adoption level, the bank conducted weekly surveys of its first group of users regarding cryptocurrency trading. In a interview with the Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico, Guto Antunes, head of Itau Digital Assets, the response to the news was very favorable.
“We have interests and a partnership with Liqi but nothing regarding custody. The entire custody solution was built and managed with Itau architecture and with fiduciary responsibility,” explained Antunes.
Tailor-made custody solution
Itau Unibanco would have wanted to secure its clients’ digital assets and therefore created its custody solution. Each user has a digital wallet with segregated funds intended to ensure the security of the user’s funds and compliance with legislation. Antunes emphasized that the bank wants to manage the custody function in-house rather than outsourcing it.
Currently, the bank only manages Bitcoin and Ethereum but plans to diversify its list of currencies. The bank is still seeking legal advice from the Central Bank of Brazil, particularly on stablecoins.
“We are in sync with the central bank in formulating the rules and we want to develop accordingly,” Antunes said.
As a regulated financial institution, Itau Unibanco is quite conservative in offering services related to cryptocurrencies. The bank’s strategy of holding out until there is a clear guideline on stablecoins illustrates the bank’s compliance with regulations and risk management. This way, it is guaranteed that the bank’s cryptocurrency services do not pose a legal problem or carry 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 introduced tokenization activity and established a digital assets team to helping businesses tokenize their assets on the blockchain. This unit aims to help expand the use of blockchain technology in financial markets.
Competitive Landscape in the Brazilian Crypto Market
Itau Unibanco’s entry into the cryptocurrency market means it will join other local and international companies engaged in trading, such as crypto exchange MB, the digital assets unit of BTG Pactual , Mynt, and Binance. Therefore, the bank plans to rely on 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 joined the cryptocurrency trading market, which can be seen as integrating digital assets with the traditional financial sector. The Ion platform has already launched over 3 million users and gained popularity. Indeed, the application, downloaded 5 million times on Android and iOS platforms, will fuel the use of cryptocurrencies in Brazil.