The last few months in Brazil have seen a frenzy of crypto-related product debuts, or at the very least announcements, throughout the country. A significant investment bank in Latin America, BTG Pactual, launched its cryptocurrency trading platform, Mynt on the same day as a competing financial institution, XP.
BTG Pactual and XP are now providing competition for Nubank, a financial institution that has already established a strong reputation in the region. Mynt will give users direct access to bitcoin. This makes it one of the first major Brazilian banks to do this.
It is still not apparent who will support Mynt and act as custodian of the actual bitcoin. Mynt customers won’t be able to self-custody their bitcoins at launch, but the platform has plans to add this feature in the future.
Furthermore, when customers create an account with the investment bank, which now has more than $200 billion in assets, they will all have access to instructional material regarding bitcoin.
Andre Portilho, partner and head of digital assets at BTG, said in that same interview:
“Our vision is that crypto technology will do to the finance industry what the internet did to the information industry, it changed it completely,”
Recent Uptick of Crypto in the Latin America
Most Latin Americans have admitted to having used cryptocurrencies at least once to complete a transaction, making it one of the most common payment methods in the region. In addition to this, they express a need for further solutions that are crypto and blockchain-related.
Interestingly, Santander Brasil has also launched a trading facility for cryptocurrencies, which is available to institutional and individual customers. Additionally, Meta has attempted to register its cryptocurrency-related services as a trademark in Brazil. Even if there hasn’t been any follow-up on this event, companies are optimistic about the country’s future.
However, the Brazilian government has been hard at work trying to formulate regulations for the cryptocurrency business as it continues to see explosive growth in supply and demand. A resolution that would give the Central Bank of Brazil power over the cryptocurrency business has received approval from the Senate of Brazil.
Governments are facing very high rates of inflation, which is boosting the desire for cryptocurrencies. There has been a significant increase in the number of freelancers who are willing to accept cryptocurrencies as payment.
Of course, the younger generation is, without a doubt, the one most likely to adopt cryptocurrency, and this fact should not come as a surprise to anyone. Younger generations who are more adept with technology are becoming more amenable to accepting cryptocurrencies as payment.
