Brazilian Bank Itau Unibanco to Offer Cryptocurrency Custody Services in 2023

Itau Unibanco, one of the largest private banks in Brazil and Latam, has decided to step into the crypto-related services business. The company announced recently that it plans to launch cryptocurrency custody services in 2023. Itau Digital Assets, the division of the company that deals with all things crypto, will be in charge of the tech behind this solution.

For Itau Unibanco, custody services are an important part of the security framework that third-party companies can offer users. On this, Itau Unibanco's product manager Eric Alftafim said: "Custody is a fundamental element in this context, because, especially in a new market like crypto assets, it brings security to investors. We will safeguard customer assets in a reliable environment."

The cryptocurrency custody service will be implemented in two phases. tau Unibanco expects to launch its custody solution in Q2 2023. However, the company did not reveal the assets supported by its solution.

While Itau Unibanco is one of the first banks to announce this kind of service, it is not the first in Brazil. BTG Pactual, another institution in Brazil, debuted its cryptocurrency custody services as part of the launch of its own crypto exchange, called mint, in August.

This is not the first time that Itau Unibanco flirts with crypto. The company announced that it might introduce cryptocurrency trading for its customers on July 14. In the same way, the bank is also operating a tokenization unit, that allows customers to issue tokens representing real-world assets in the bank's own exchange.

(Source: Bitcoin.com)