According to Santander CEO, cryptocurrency trading will be offered by the Spanish bank giant.
According to Folha do S. Paulo , Banco Santander S.A. in Brazil, it is looking at crypto trading for clients.
Mario Leao, CEO of Santander Brazil, spoke to journalists on Thursday. He said that the bank would like to share more information about the matter within the next few months, perhaps during publication of its next quarterly results.
Leao stated, “We know that this market is here to stay and it’s not necessarily a response to competitors positioning themselves. It is simply a vision of our client having demand for that type of asset, so it is important that we find the best and most educational way to do that.”
The report states that Santander’s Brazilian subsidiary has begun to explore blockchain technology for tokenizing traditional market assets such as debt securities issued to companies. This will allow these assets to be made more accessible to a wider audience.
This announcement comes after a similar move by Brazil’s largest bank Nubank. In May, Nubank began offering Ethereum and Bitcoin trading to its customers. Nubank announced earlier this week that it had acquired 1,000,000 users in two months.
Nubank has also allocated 1% of its cash to Bitcoin as a way to show its faith in the cryptocurrency.
Itau Digital Assets, another major Brazilian financial player, also announced the launch of its own platform for asset tokenization, adding the report.
Santander’s foray into cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is not his first.
In 2018, the bank launched OnePay FX, a digital bank app powered by Ripped to facilitate cross-border payments. It was made available to customers in the UK and Brazil. The following year, more important updates were added.
Santander has announced 2019 the launch of a $20,000,000 blockchain bond on the public ETH blockchain. This successfully concludes the work that began in 2016 at the bank’s own blockchain lab.
