The Brazilian branch of Spain’s largest commercial bank, Banco Santander, is reportedly set to begin offering bitcoin and ether trading services to its customers. In an interview with a local newspaper, Folha de S. PauloMario Leão, CEO of Santander Brazil, partially confirmed the claims, noting that the institution realizes that the crypto industry is here to stay given increased demand.
Mario Leão said the bank acknowledges that “it [crypto] is a market that is there to stay, and it is not necessarily a reaction to competitors positioning themselves; it’s just a vision that our client has a demand for this type of asset, so we need to find the most correct and most instructive way to do this.” In addition, local news reported that the CEO of Santander Brazil has determined that the financial institution will share more information on the matter during the release of its next quarterly results.
This is why Brazilian banks choose crypto
Brazilian banks have been quickly attracted to the crypto sphere with prominent players like – Itau Unibanco Holding SA and Nubank starting crypto trading services. Earlier this month, Watcher Guru reported that Latin America’s largest private lender, Itau Unibanco Holding SA, plans to facilitate the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies to its retail customers in the near future, in addition to announcing a new token- trading platform. However, the financial giant has not provided a specific timeline for this.
Nubank, Brazil’s digital banking platform giant, also announced an exclusive partnership with blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos. In light of the partnership, the bank has confirmed that it will offer cryptocurrency buying, holding and selling capabilities.
Following the news that banks are switching to crypto, a recent report of the global recruiting platform Part found that despite the ongoing crypto crash, digital assets accounted for 5% of all global payments debited from the platform each month. In addition, the report highlighted that crypto payments are most prominent among residents of countries with currency volatility, which also results in the problem of hyperinflation. These include countries in Latin America (LATAM) and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Subsequently, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter, Luana Pinheiro recently became the first-ever Brazilian sportswoman to sign an agreement to receive all of her wages in the dominant cryptocurrency, bitcoin. She highlighted bitcoin’s inflationary hedge use case, further emphasizing her Latin American roots to explain her decision as a safeguard against currency devaluation.
She said, “Remember, I’m from Brazil, so I know a thing or two about inflation and its effects. I was born around 1994, around the time the Brazilian currency Real was introduced and at the time pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. It is now 5 BRL for 1 USD. Bitcoin is for that, to protect against inflation.”