Brazil’s Leading Brokerage Firm Reveals the Launch Date of its Crypto Platform

XP Inc. – one of Brazil’s largest brokerage companies – expects to release its cryptocurrency platform by the middle of August 2022. Initially, the entity will allow trading with bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), while it could add more digital assets later in the year.

Crypto’s Decline Is Not a Concern to XP

In May this year, the Brazilian investment management company – XP Inc. – partnered with Nasdaq to create a digital asset exchange called XTAGE. The platform was supposed to be fully integrated into the firm’s ecosystem and go live by the end of June.

However, in a recent interview for Reuters, Lucas Rabechini – Director of Financial Products at XP – said the launch of the platform will be delayed until the middle of August. As originally planned, the trading venue will support the two biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization – bitcoin and ether, while in the following months, ten more assets should follow suit.

Touching upon the ongoing market crash, Rabechini argued that the crypto prices are not the only important feature of the industry:

“You can say ‘the volume has been weak, there will be few orders,’ but we see this market systematically growing over time, and our long-term view is not just focused on price, but also technology.”

Subsequently, Rabechini assured that XP’s crypto services will comply with domestic law to provide maximum protection for the firm’s 3.6 million customers.

Brazil’s Financial Giants Rush to Offer Crypto Services

Last September, one of the largest Brazilian banks – BTG Pactual – allowed its clients to trade cryptocurrencies directly through a new platform called Mynt. Similar to XP, the financial institution included only bitcoin and ether in the offering.

In May 2022, Latin America’s biggest digital bank – Nubank – joined forces with Paxos to provide a simple and seamless cryptocurrency experience for its users. Specifically, customers were enabled to buy, sell, and hold BTC and ETH via the banking app, with crypto purchases starting from $0.20 (1 BRL).

Two weeks ago, the Brazilian digital payments startup – PicPay – launched a cryptocurrency exchange. Apart from bitcoin and ether, the platform will also support the Paxos USDP stablecoin, which is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. By the end of 2022, the trading venue intends to support up to 100 coins.