Brazil’s Largest Private Bank Itau Unibanco Starts Bitcoin Trading

Brazil’s financial landscape underwent a sea change when Itaú Unibanco, the country’s largest private bank, announced its foray into the world of cryptocurrency trading on Monday, introducing a service that will allow customers to participate in buying and selling Bitcoin and Ethereum through the Aeon investment platform. I witnessed it.

Representing a significant shift for traditional banking institutions, Itau follows new financial institutions such as Nubank and BTG Pactual in integrating these services for their customers.

Initially, Itaú’s customers will be able to trade Bitcoin and Ether, the main cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum network. However, the rollout of this service will be gradual, with selective access granted to ion registered customers, depending on regulatory clarity.

Guto Antunes, head of Itaú Digital Assets, emphasized the bank’s cautious approach, emphasizing that custody of bitcoins traded on Aeon will be managed by Itaú, ensuring asset segregation but blocking platform users’ access to their wallet’s private keys .

In particular, he stated that external Bitcoin deposits to Itaú accounts and withdrawals to customers’ personal digital wallets will not be possible in the early stages.

Instead, banks promise the security of their balance sheets to protect their investments. We liken this to the security customers experience when their money remains in a traditional bank account.

Elsewhere, Antunes highlighted Itaú’s focus on attracting new customers by offering opportunities in Bitcoin. “We are in a generation that is growing up and banking in a tokenized way,” he said.

The move is an important step, but it shows how traditional banks still equate Bitcoin with cryptocurrencies. Here, the bank does not indicate that centralized cryptocurrencies are being investigated in the United States and other jurisdictions.