Brazil’s XP to launch crypto trading platform next month

abdelaziz Fathi

XP Inc (XP.O) expects to open its crypto trading platform, dubbed ‘XTAGE’, by mid-August as Brazil’s largest broker is looking to tap into the growing interest in trading bitcoin and other digital assets.

XTAGE will initially trade the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ether, but plans to expand its assets portfolio by the end of this year, the company’s director of financial products Lucas Rabechini told Reuters.

“Clients with an adequate investment profile for such operations will be allowed into the Xtage platform, now just open to employees, starting next month. And by the end of December and the beginning of next year, there will be an additional 10 cryptoassets available for trading,” XP’s exec added.

The platform was developed in partnership with Nasdaq and BitGo and crypto features will be integrated into the XP app. The new capability will allow XP’s 3.6 million users to make trades while staying on the platform. XTAGE is built on Nasdaq’s trading technology while BitGo will act as a custodian.

With hype around crypto definitely not abating, XP is ending a long hiatus after rivals stepped into the game to tap into the ever-expanding interests of trading cryptocurrency. In May,  Nubank, the largest Brazilian digital bank, rolled out low-cost cryptocurrency trading to its clients via partnership with stablecoin issuer, Paxos.

To get some activity going on its network, XTAGE users will initially have access to an internal wallet where they can store their purchased bitcoins. Upon launch, however, they will not be able transfer funds to external wallets, a feature that XP plans to add in the future as it expands its offering and includes additional coins.

As per the joint statement , XP clients will be able to trade cryptocurrency at “super competitive fees.”

XP’s director of financial products added: “The creation of XTAGE represents a major milestone in advancing on the digital assets market and in our ability to offer investors increased access to the emerging ecosystem. Through the technology partnership with Nasdaq, we are confident that XP will operate on an innovative and robust capital market infrastructure.”

Brazilians have not missed the cryptocurrency trend and the country has been a hive of activity related to crypto assets. Within Latin America, the nation was the cryptocurrency ringleader both on the regulatory side and on the development side. Brazil alone accounts for more than a quarter of the $500 billion crypto market in Latin America.

Read this next

Uncategorized

US and South Korea seek extradition of Luna founder Do Kwon

Both US and South Korean officials are seeking to extradite Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon, just hours after he was arrested in Montenegro.

Retail FX

Pepperstone UK doubles profit, client assets in 2022

The London-based entity of Australian FX broker Pepperstone has reported its financials for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. The group had outperformed the last year’s flat performance, having doubled revenues and boosted the broker’s bottom line and shareholders’ fortunes.

Institutional FX

CLS FX volume rises to just shy of $2 trillion in February

Foreign exchange settlement provider, CLS Group saw strong volumes in February 2023 as the banking crisis continues to weigh on a world economy that’s yet to fully recover from the Russia-Ukraine war’s shocks.

Digital Assets

Binance restores trading after 2-hour outage

Binance suffered a breakdown on its trading engine that lasted for about two hours, but the premier cryptocurrency exchange finally managed to restore normal operations at around 14:00 UTC.

Digital Assets

Tether earns $700 million in Q1, taking excess reserves to $1.6 billion

Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino said the world’s largest stablecoin issuer expects to earn more than $700 million in the January-Mach quarter, which will be added to the reserve backing its stablecoin (USDT).

Digital Assets

Narwhal Finance Secures $1M in Seed Funding Led by Animoca Ventures

Narwhal Finance received strong support from Animoca Ventures and angel investors in a $1 million seed funding round, reinforcing the company’s vision of providing an accessible platform to all.

Technology

SteelEye tries ChatGPT for market surveillance

This capability can be used as a starting point for initiating a surveillance investigation and to standardize workflow processes to boost the throughput and consistency of cases. It is also useful when analyzing communications in foreign languages, as the system returns the above insights in English regardless of the languages being used.

Industry News

SEC charges ex-Morgan Stanley advisor of NBA players after $13m fraud

Darryl Matthew Cohen was arrested this week and is facing three different federal counts of fraud, which could amount to 20 years in prison if convicted, besides the SEC complaint. 

Industry News

AWS FinTech Africa Accelerator launched, applications until April 27, 2023

Founders will be offered tech resources, expert guidance, and a global network of industry leaders, technologists, entrepreneurs, investors, associations, and partners, in order to build their fintech products. 

<