There had been news about XP in May, when XP reportedly joined forces with Nasdaq to launch a digital asset trading platform called XTAGE.
Bitcoin’s adoption has been increasing despite the recent bitcoin bear market.
XP is Brazil’s largest equities broker, so the rumors that they will be offering bitcoin trading to their customers this summer is a positive sign. In general, Brazil has taken a positive stance towards bitcoin. Especially the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, who planned to turn the city into a thriving bitcoin epicenter made headlines last year.
At first, the plan was to offer only two assets to customers, bitcoin and ether. The plan of the bank is to offer other assets to clients by the end of the year.
Another Brazilian bank, Nubank, has reportedly collaborated with Paxos trust and is offering bitcoin to its customers who can access bitcoin directly from the bank’s regular banking app.
Lucas Rabechini, Director of Financial Products at XP, mentioned in an interview with Reuters that he expects the trading volume to be low initially. The bank is launching its bitcoin trading services right during one of the worst downturns in bitcoin’s history.
UST and Luna collapsed earlier this year, followed by bankruptcies at Celsius, Voyager and Three Arrows Capital. Despite this, the bank is bullish on the future of bitcoin and views its expansion into the market as a long-term process to adapt to the fast-growing bitcoin market rather than a short-term play.
In the past, there has also been speculation that Brazil could potentially make bitcoin legal tender at some point in the future, similar to El Salvador. Brazil’s currency, the real, has been struggling in recent years, reaching double-digit inflation rates. Currently, Brazil has an inflation rate of 11.73%.
Providing Brazilians with a way to protect their purchasing power is bullish. But it’s always important to keep the mantra in mind: “Not your keys, not your coins”. As the collapse of many centralized institutions like Celsius and Voyager have shown, if you don’t hold your bitcoin in self-custody, you don’t own them.
Hopefully XT and Nubank offering bitcoin to their millions of customers will serve as a gateway-drug to self-sovereignty rather than a “lazy approach” of keeping private keys with a third-party custodian.
