Brazilian Broker XP Inc. to Open Crypto Trading Platform to Clients in August

XP Inc., the largest investment broker in Brazil, will open its digital asset trading platform Xtage in August, as reported.

Xtage, which is currently being tested by employees, will be available from next month to customers with "adequate investment profile for such operations," revealed Lucas Rabechini, Director of Financial Products at XP Inc.

The platform will initially offer bitcoin and ether trading, with plans to expand its offering by the end of the year. Rabechini said that "by the end of December and the beginning of next year" there will be an additional 10 cryptoassets available for trading.

Initially, Xtage will reportedly not support withdrawals or transfers of bitcoin.

Institutional cryptocurrency firm BitGo has been selected as XP Inc.'s custody partner for Xtage. BitGo offers institutional-grade cold storage multisignature wallets to safeguard assets while offering insurance on assets held on the platform, as well as self-managed cold custody solutions. 

Designed by XP Inc. in partnership with Nasdaq, Xtage is focused on order execution and will integrate with XP Inc.'s current applications. The platform was first announced in May and made available for employee testing in July.

The broker mentioned the quick timeline was in part due to the growing competition from other financial institutions entering the ecosystem such as Nubank, Itau Unibanco and BTG Pactual, which have all recently revealed plans to offer crypto-related services to their clients.

"There are competitors doing their homework, some pretty competent ones, but we are competent as well," Rabechini said.