On Monday, one of Brazil’s largest brokerages XP launched its crypto trading branch XTAGE via a new partnership with Nasdaq.
The launch of XTAGE opens up new investment avenues to over 3.5 million customers, allowing customers to buy, sell, hold, and trade Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to the official announcement from Nasdaq.
XP employees piloted the crypto platform in May before integrating the service into the brokerage.
In the May announcement, executive vice president of XP Roland Chai said that “Nasdaq’s robust and flexible infrastructure technology, designed to meet market demands, as well as current and future regulatory structures, will allow XP to scale its platform reliably and introduce new asset classes as they grow and evolve.”
Brazil and crypto
Brazil has been on the move, fueling the growing interest in crypto for its 213 million citizens.
The Brazilian subsidiary of Santander Bank, Banco Santander S.A., recently launched a crypto trading platform for its Brazilian customers in July.
The firm’s CEO Mario Leão said that “it is simply a vision that our client has demand for this type of asset," to give clients what they want in the most educational and correct way.
In October 2021, Brazilian lawmakers sought to make crypto a legal “payment currency,” with negotiations still underway in the Brazilian parliament.