Brazil Embraces Crypto With Record User Subscriptions in New Bank Offering

• Brazil’s Nubank has confirmed a record subscription of its new crypto offerings in the country in collaboration with Paxos.
• In an interview Nubank CEO and co-founder, David Vélez revealed that the bank had brought onboard 1 million crypto customers.

Brazil’s Nubank is celebrating a record subscription of its crypto offerings in the South American country. In an interview, The bank’s co-founder David Vélez explained that what was a target to be achieved a year from now had been surpassed in about a month. Since the launch of its crypto offering at the end of June, the offering has onboarded more than one million users.

The idea, as the CEO explained during an interview with Neofeed, is to popularize crypto in the country and offer Brazilians better access to financial tools. According to a survey conducted last year, more than 34 million Brazilians (approximately 10%) did not have a bank account, hindering them from accessing banking services.

Brazil’s Political and Economic State

On top of this, Brazil is one of the most politically volatile countries in the world. Friction among the political elite has often led to economic deterioration which directly harms the national currency leading to inflation. This year’s inflation data shows that the rate year over year is 11.89% (compared to 11.73% for the previous month). Inflation from May 2022 to June 2022 was 0.67%.

This increase further explains the keen interest in the crypto offering. Bitcoin is a hedge asset against inflation, performing better than most mainstream assets despite the current market slump. Though Brazilians have been dabbling with crypto, the Nubank CEO explained that most find the current platforms to be complex;

There is no doubt that crypto is a growing trend in Latin America, one that we have been following closely and believe will have a transformational impact on the region. Yet the trading experience is still very niche as customers either lack information to feel confident to enter this new market or just get frustrated by complex experiences,

But as Nubank gains ground in the region, its already in competion with Bank Santander a few days ago confirming they intend to offer Bitcoin and crypto to Brazil customers.

💥BREAKING: Bank Santander to offer #Bitcoin and crypto trading to customers in Brazil 🇧🇷

— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) July 29, 2022

Brazil is one of many Latin countries adopting crypto although the government has remained optimistically cautious about the industry. El Salvador remains to be the only Latin American country to adopt Bitcoin thanks to its progressive president Nayib Bukele.