Nubank, Latin America’s largest digital bank, announced a partnership with Paxos that will allow its clients to purchase, sell, and store bitcoins directly through Nubank.
Nubank said that it will dedicate around 1% of its net assets to Bitcoin (BTC) through the cashier of Nu Holdings, a business that manages the Nubank Group, in conjunction with the launch of the new cryptocurrency transaction services.
According to a statement supplied to Cointelegraph by Nubank, Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) will be available for purchase starting at US$ 0.2 (or 1 BRL) in May. By the end of June, the crypto investment service will be completely operational.
The integration with cryptocurrencies, according to Nubank, intends to increase and improve access to this expanding market by removing the complexity and friction for clients to buy, hold, and trade digital currencies using the app without having to register new accounts or transfer cash.
The company acknowledged that it will expand its products beyond BTC and ETH in the future, but did not specify which assets will be included.
Paxos will enable Nubank to deliver crypto-enabled services to consumers through a set of APIs, similar to what Mercado Livre and PayPal do in cooperation with Paxos.
In Brazil alone, Nubank is reported to have more than 50 million customers. Paxos claims that its relationship with the digital bank is a key strategic step as Latin America continues to develop as a crypto hub.
Nubank and the crypto space
Although this is the first time Nubank has made BTC and ETH available for purchase outright, the bank is no stranger to digital assets.
Customers can already buy investment funds with exposure to the digital asset market through Nulinvest, a platform Nubank acquired in 2020 when it was called Easynvest.
Nubank recently began to offer QBTC11, an exchange-traded fund that is 100 percent dedicated to Bitcoin and is managed by QR Asset Management, a subsidiary of the QR Capital group.
Meanwhile, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased $1 billion in Nubank shares in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to a securities filing earlier this year. The Oracle of Omaha is claimed to have gained indirect exposure to the digital asset market as a result of the transaction.
Nubank isn’t the only local bank considering offering cryptocurrency investment options. BTG Practual is another Brazilian bank that will offer Bitcoin investment options to its customers.
Roberto Sallouti, the bank’s president, recently revealed that the bank will open its own cryptocurrency exchange in about two months.
“We will have our cryptocurrency trading platform in up to two months [..] BTG’s proposal is to have a complete investment platform for our clients,” he revealed.
