Itaú Unibanco, one of the largest holding companies in Brazil, has announced it is considering offering cryptocurrency trading services to its customers. According to the company, it also plans to offer tokenization through its digital assets unit. Customers will be able to issue tokens which are supported by real-world assets. The platform will facilitate trading.
Itaú Unibanco Adds Tokenization to Its Services
Companies in financial services are beginning to add blockchain and cryptocurrency-related services to their portfolios. Itaú Unibanco, a large holdings and financial services company in Brazil, has announced it will start offering tokenization services to its customers. To this end, the company will create a brand new unit in its structure, called Itaú Digital Assets, that will provide tokenization capabilities and act as a middleman between companies wanting to take their assets to the blockchain and the market. To tokenize, the company will be using Hyperledger Besu as a platform. The tokens will not be traded outside the exchange.
According to reports in the area, tokenization testing has been conducted by the bank. The tokens have been issued for private customers as well as employees, but no official reports were made. As head of the Digital Assets Unit, Vanessa Fernandes (a company senior executive), will lead the initiative.
Crypto Trading Services Being Considered
Fernandes is optimistic that the company will be able provide more services in the future, even though the primary goal of this new unit remains to deliver tokenization services to customers. Although Fernandes stated that they were considering providing cryptocurrency trading services to customers in the future but didn’t provide any further details.
Itaú is just the latest in a series of Brazilian companies that are seeing opportunities in the cryptocurrency trading arena. Picpay, a popular digital wallet provider and payment service, recently announced that it will begin offering cryptocurrency trading services and payment services starting in August. Similar trading services were also offered by Nubank in Brazil, another digital bank.
The Central Bank of Brazil has declared it will be doing tests on its own currency — a central bank digital currency (CBDC) — this year. With the approval of a bill on crypto assets by the Brazilian Senate, the matter is moving forward. The deputy chamber will be discussing the crypto bill.
What do you think about Itaú Unibanco offering tokenization services? Please leave your comments below.
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