Briefly
- Brazil’s crypto market hit a document R$505.5 billion ($98.7 billion) in 2025, up greater than fivefold from R$94.9 billion in 2020, in keeping with Receita Federal information.
- Itaú now affords 15 cryptoassets and Nubank lists 28, whereas Banco do Brasil says its bitcoin and Ethereum service has moved greater than R$11 million ($2.1 million) since January.
- Central Financial institution filings reviewed by Folha present zero proprietary crypto holdings at Brazilian banks as of March 2026, whilst client-facing crypto cabinets continue to grow.
Itaú, Brazil’s largest financial institution by property beneath administration, now sells shoppers 15 totally different crypto property via its funding app, together with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC.
Nubank, Brazil’s largest fintech, lists 28. Banco do Brasil, Brazil’s most profitable public financial institution, which began letting prospects purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum instantly in January, advised Folha de S.Paulo the service has already moved greater than $11 million reals ($2.1 million) in transactions.
None of that cash touches the banks’ personal stability sheets. Central Financial institution filings dated March 2026 and reviewed by Folha present zero holdings of digital property on the books of Brazilian banks, though establishments can custody and course of crypto on shoppers’ behalf.
The shelf-stocking is latest. Since final 12 months, Itaú, Bradesco, Santander, Banco do Brasil and Nubank have all expanded their crypto lineups, monitoring a document run within the underlying market. Brazilians moved R$505.5 billion ($98.7 billion) via crypto in 2025, in keeping with Receita Federal information, Brazil’s federal tax authority—greater than 5 occasions the quantity recorded in 2020.
Corporations did a lot of the shifting. Company crypto transactions totaled R$497 billion ($97 billion) final 12 months—98.3% of the amount Receita Federal tracked—with particular person traders accounting for the remaining.
Regulation clears the runway
The enlargement tracks a regulatory shift. Brazil handed its Authorized Framework for Digital Belongings in 2022, handing the Central Financial institution authority over the sector, and three resolutions the financial institution revealed in November 2025 gave that authority tooth. Any agency that lets prospects commerce, maintain, or ship crypto now wants a license, a minimal capital cushion, and segregated shopper accounts, with an October 30 deadline to conform.
A kind of guidelines, Decision 521, treats any buy or alternate of a dollar-pegged token as a international alternate operation, the identical reporting bar utilized to sending cash overseas. That change pulled stablecoins, crypto’s greenback substitutes, squarely into the Central Financial institution’s line of sight.
That readability is what satisfied banks to maneuver, Carlos Akira Sato, co-founder of consultancy Syscapital, advised Folha. Brazilian banks are sometimes conservative about new markets, he stated, and clearer guidelines left them “safer to launch their merchandise.”
Banco Safra, a smaller financial institution recognized for specializing in excessive web price shoppers, took the boldest swing, issuing its personal dollar-pegged stablecoin, Safra Dólar, in September 2025 and conserving full custody in-house. The financial institution markets it as a manner for shoppers to carry greenback publicity with out opening an account overseas. It matches a broader sample of banks constructing stablecoin rails themselves fairly than handing that enterprise to crypto-native companies.
Proprietary publicity solely exists, he stated, when a financial institution buys crypto with its personal cash and absorbs the value, liquidity, and credit score danger that comes with it. By that customary, none of Brazil’s banks have crossed into possession but.
Promoting crypto to shoppers who ask for it’s totally different from betting the financial institution’s personal cash on it. With roughly 120 crypto companies working in Brazil, most nonetheless with no license, racing to fulfill that October 30, 2026 deadline, the banks that already cleared the compliance bar are those with room left to maintain including to the menu.
