Over 53 million Brazilian customers can now buy bitcoin through the country’s largest digital bank, Warren Buffett-backed Nubank.
Brazil’s largest digital bank, Nubank, has rolled out bitcoin buying capabilities to all its 53.9 million customers.
The Warren Buffett-backed fintech had announced the feature in May through a blog post, mentioning how the option would be rolled out in phases. At the time, the company also made a treasury allocation to bitcoin.
The blog post was updated on Monday to reflect the new status: all Nubank customers now have access to the “Nubank Crypto” tab – where bitcoin can be negotiated.
“The option to buy cryptocurrencies through Nubank is now available to all our customers. Update your app,” the updated blog post reads.
Users can buy and sell bitcoin instantly through the Nubank Crypto section of Nubank’s app, the banking platform most widely used by Brazilians in 2021. Even though customers now have the option to acquire BTC, the ability to withdraw purchased coins to an external wallet is not yet available.
Bitcoin Magazine tested the new feature on Tuesday.
Nubank charges a small fee for each buy or sell operation, which, despite varying, hovers around 0.02%. The app also displays educational content in the Crypto section, providing information about what bitcoin is to novice investors.
“The first cryptocurrency to exist,” Nubank’s app says as the user navigates to the page to buy BTC. “Bitcoin was created with the intention to decentralize the financial system and influenced all the other cryptocurrencies since then. Generally, people compare Bitcoin to gold and tend to store it for the future.”
Unicorn start-up Nubank is the most popular digital bank in Brazil. The fintech is backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and went public on the Nasdaq recently.
According to a CNBC report, the holding company invested $500 million in Nubank in June 2021, acquired 30 million shares for $250 million as it went public in December and recently doubled-down with a $1 billion investment in Brazilian fintech.
Nubank joins the race to lure Brazilian bitcoin investors as players in the banking system compete to offer the best cryptocurrency services in the country – from neo-banks like Nubank to traditional banks such as Itau Unibanco. Investment banks such as BTG Pactual and XP Investimentos have also doubled-down on the sector recently with their own plans to offer Bitcoin services to consumers set to come to fruition later this year.
Brazil’s cryptocurrency market is preparing for a new set of rules governing the activities of exchanges and custodians in the country. The country’s House of Representatives is set to vote on the overhaul cryptocurrency draft bill in the coming weeks.
