Share this article
Santander Brazil to Launch Crypto Trading Feature in Coming Months, CEO Says
The financial institution will join fintech companies entering the crypto segment, such as Nubank, Mercado Libre and PicPay.
By Paulo Alves
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:24 p.m. Published Jul 28, 2022, 11:22 p.m.
This article is adapted from CoinDesk Brasil, a partnership between CoinDesk and InfoMoney, one of Brazil's leading financial news publications. Follow CoinDesk Brasil on Twitter.
Spanish banking multinational Santander (SAN) plans to offer crypto trading to its clients in Brazil in the coming months, Santander Brazil CEO Mario Leao said on Thursday.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The bank plans to launch crypto-related services and could provide further news about the initiative in the company's next earnings release, in mid-October, Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported.
“We recognize that it is a market that is here to stay, and it is not necessarily a reaction to competitors positioning themselves. It is simply a vision that our client has demand for this type of asset, so we have to find the most correct and most educational way to do it,” Leao said.
Santander has already made inroads with crypto in Latin America this year. In March, it launched loans in Argentina for farmers collateralized with tokenized commodities in partnership with Agrotoken, an Argentina-based agricultural commodities tokenization platform.
Read more: Why Brazil Is the Big Latin American Bet for Global Crypto Exchanges
Several non-crypto financial companies have announced or started operating crypto ventures in Brazil recently. In July, the Brazilian fintech PicPay announced its plans to launch a crypto exchange and a Brazilian real-tied stablecoin in 2022. In December, Mercado Libre, Latin America’s largest e-commerce company by market value, started allowing users in Brazil to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies.
On Tuesday, Nubank, the largest Brazilian digital bank by market value, announced it reached one million users on its crypto trading platform just one month after launching in June.
This article was translated by Andrés Engler and edited by CoinDesk. The original Portuguese can be found here.
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Tom Lee urges BitMine shareholders to approve share increase ahead of January 14 vote
The chairman of the former bitcoin miner-turned-ether treasury firm reiterated his view that Ethereum is the future of finance.
What to know:
- Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine Immersion (BMNR), urged shareholders to approve an increase in the company's authorized share count from 500 million to 50 billion.
- Lee assured shareholders that the increase is not intended to dilute shares, but instead to enable capital raising, dealmaking, and future share splits.
- Shareholders have until January 14 to vote on the proposal, with the annual meeting scheduled for January 15 in Las Vegas.
Top Stories
