Spanish Santander Group To Provide Crypto Trading In Brazil

According to the local media publication Folha de S. Paulo, the Brazilian subsidiary of the Spanish Santander Group is looking into a program that would allow its clients to trade crypto.

Santander Brazil CEO Mario Leão reportedly said that the bank plans to give more information on these rumors within the next couple of months, maybe even during its following quarterly report.

"We recognize that it is a market that is here to stay, and it is not necessarily a reaction to competitors positioning themselves; it is simply a vision that our client has demand for this type of asset, so we have to find the most correct and most educational way to do it," said Leão.

The Brazilian subsidiary is also reportedly researching the use of blockchain technology to tokenize certain digital assets, such as debt securities or bonds, with the hopes to make these assets more widely available to the public

Brazil's largest bank Nubank, took a similar approach this past May, as it began offering Bitcoin and Ethereum trading to its customers. Nubank revealed earlier this week that the crypto trading program had already garnered over 1 million users.

Nubank is also showing support for cryptocurrency by converting 1% of the cash on it balance sheet to Bitcoin.

Another major player in Brazil's financial sector Itaú, also announced its own asset tokenization platform, this month named Itaú Digital Assets.

This is not Santander's first foray into blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. As the banking giant had already partnered with Ripple to launch a digital banking app for cross-border payments in 2018.