On Monday, August 15, BTG Pactual, Latin America’s largest investment bank, launched its brokerage services for Bitcoin (BTC) and some altcoins. Here are the details…
BTG Pactual launches brokerage service for BTC and altcoins
Banks in Latin America and Brazil are rushing to establish their place in the crypto space. Amid uncertain economic conditions, the demand for crypto assets in this region has increased significantly. BTG Pactual’s announcement came on the same day that another competitor XP launched its services. The crypto brokerage platform called Mynt will come as a separate product. There are some deposit and withdrawal restrictions that crypto exchanges face due to regulatory actions. André Portilho, Head of Digital Assets of the company, also drew attention to this issue and said:
We are working on this feature. We plan to release it in a few weeks or months. Given the situations where we have withdrawal restrictions, we think customers will want to bring assets to BTG.
Furthermore, the manager stated that they are also working on integrating the “stablecoin” into their platform. But was Portilho talking about the bank’s native stablecoin with this? Or is it from a third party company? Portilho did not comment on the matter.
What cryptocurrencies will Mynt support?
BTG Pactual’s Mynt platform will initially support five cryptocurrencies. This includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), and Solana (SOL). Portilho said, “We will list more coins. However, it depends on customer demand and our internal project evaluation process.” However, the executive also avoided predicting the future price of cryptocurrencies. “For example, I don’t know if we’ve hit bottom yet,” Portilho said, as reported by local news outlet Portal do Bitcoin.
Interestingly, he also commented on the Bitcoin halving cycle and the ensuing bull run. “Halving has become a Bitcoin price-driven legend,” Portilho said. It was undoubtedly important in the past, but it is no longer important today.” With the largest investment bank in Latin America joining the cryptocurrency wagon, more financial players are expected to join the space.
BTG Pactual doesn’t just have XP among its competitors, Nubank and MercadoLibre are also among the competitors. Nubank, the largest digital bank in Brazil and Latin America, announced a partnership with Paxos in May of this year. Following the announcement, customers were able to start buying, selling and storing cryptocurrencies directly through Nubank. As we reported on Kriptokoin.com, MercadoLibre’s fintech arm, MercadoPago, announced that its Brazilian customers will be able to buy, sell and hold BTC, ETH and Pax Dollar (USDP) in December 2021.
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