Following MercadoLibre and Nubank, XP Inc. is the most recent member of the Brazilian fintech industry to provide services for trading cryptocurrencies.
A potential 3.6 million customers will now have access to the cryptocurrency markets thanks to Brazilian brokerage firm XP Inc.’s formal launch of its crypto trading platform “XTAGE” there.
The Nasdaq Exchange Twitter account announced the news in a message on August 15 mentioning that XP had rung the exchange’s “Opening Bell” to mark the debut of the XTAGE digital assets trading platform.
The 3.6 million customers of XP Inc will initially only be able to trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). However, the broker stated in May that there were plans to “enable other digital assets and financial products based on crypto assets in the future.”
XTAGE is fully integrated into the XP ecosystem and allows users to conduct cryptocurrency transactions on its existing app. It was developed in collaboration with major American stock exchange Nasdaq and cryptocurrency custody provider BitGo.
However, only customers with a “sufficient investment profile for such operations” will be permitted into the XTAGE platform, according to XP Director of Financial Products Lucas Rabechini in an interview with Reuters in July.
The stock and currency trading platform MetaTrade 5 is integrated with XTAGE, which was developed using Nasdaq’s trading technology.
As a custodian, cryptocurrency custody company BitGo will hold the majority of XTAGE’s assets in offline, unconnected cold wallets.
Brazilian rivals
Following in the footsteps of MercadoLibre and Nubank, XP Inc. is simply the most recent member of the fintech industry in Brazil to provide cryptocurrency trading services.
In May of this year, Nubank, the biggest digital bank in Brazil and Latin America, declared cooperation with Paxos.
Customers were able to begin purchasing, selling, and storing bitcoins directly through Nubank after the announcement.
As of December 2021, Brazilian users will be able to purchase, sell, and hold the U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin Pax Dollar (USDP), BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies through MercadoPago, the fintech division of MercadoLibre.
