Itaú Unibanco has registered with Brazil’s central financial institution to supply trading and custody for 15 crypto property, together with Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP.
Itaú Unibanco submitted its notification to the Banco Central do Brasil three days earlier than the regulatory deadline of 30 October 2026. This makes it the primary financial institution in Brazil to finish the method. The registration covers each trading and custody, which locations Itaú within the brokerage class beneath the brand new guidelines. The financial institution should purchase and promote crypto property on prospects’ directions and maintain these property on their behalf.
The 15 property are supplied via the financial institution’s íon funding app. They’re Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, USDC, Arbitrum, Bitcoin Money, Chainlink, Avalanche, Litecoin, Optimism, Aave, Uniswap, Polygon, and PAX Gold. The submitting doesn’t introduce a brand new product. Itaú has supplied crypto trading since December 2023, and the notification brings that present service beneath the central financial institution’s formal framework.
Decision 520 units the phrases
The submitting follows Decision 520, which got here into pressure on 2 February 2026. The decision provides licensed monetary establishments 270 days to inform the central financial institution of their crypto actions. Every notification should embody an impartial technical certification. Banks that miss the deadline should cease their crypto providers inside 30 days. Crypto exchanges are handled in another way and should apply for full authorisation.
Itaú’s submitting doesn’t title any settlement asset. The financial institution has not stated it’s going to use XRP, or every other token, for cross-border transactions. There’s additionally no indication that it’ll use the XRP Ledger or associate with Ripple for cost routing. XRP is without doubt one of the 15 property available for purchase, alongside tokens corresponding to Litecoin and Uniswap. Central financial institution filings as of March 2026 confirmed that Brazilian banks held no digital property on their stability sheets. This implies crypto purchased via Itaú’s platform belongs to prospects. The financial institution’s personal analysis has beforehand prompt a 1% to three% allocation to Bitcoin as a supplementary holding.
Crypto is a part of Itaú’s funding technique, nevertheless it doesn’t but seem as a separate merchandise within the financial institution’s monetary reporting. In its third-quarter 2025 report, Itaú Asset arrange a construction to handle crypto funds, the primary Brazilian financial institution to take action. In January 2026, Itaú accomplished the acquisition of a 50.1% stake in Avenue, a US-based digital securities dealer. Neither enterprise is reported as a definite income stream. The financial institution reported a 5.8% improve in commissions and banking charges, pushed by playing cards, funding banking, and insurance coverage, with no reference to crypto earnings.
Different Brazilian banks face the identical deadline
Itaú is the primary financial institution to register, however a number of Brazilian establishments already supply crypto providers. Nubank lists 28 crypto property. State-owned Banco do Brasil started permitting prospects to purchase Bitcoin and Ether instantly in January 2026. Bradesco and Santander Brasil have expanded their crypto choices since 2025. BTG Pactual has launched a crypto trading platform. In September 2025, Banco Safra issued Safra Dólar, a stablecoin pegged to the US greenback, and retains its custody in-house.
All of those banks are topic to the 30 October 2026 deadline. These that don’t file will face the 30-day wind-down requirement set out in Decision 520.
