Crypto: Itaú Unibanco, Brazil's First Bank to Notify Regulator

Three days before the deadline. Itaú Unibanco has notified the Brazilian central bank of its activities in buying, selling, and holding cryptocurrencies. The largest private bank in the country becomes the first to operate under the new regime, which has a regularization period ending on October 30. Its crypto offering has been active since December 2023 and provides access to fifteen assets, from bitcoin to a token backed by physical gold.

Key Points

• The first private Brazilian bank has informed Brasília that it is selling and holding cryptos for its clients.
• The framework distinguishes between simple declarations for already supervised institutions and authorization applications for specialized platforms.
• Fifteen cryptocurrencies on offer, excluding memecoins, including USDC and a gold-backed token.
• Entities that do not submit any applications before the deadline will lose the right to operate in Brazil.

Itaú Unibanco Declares Its Cryptos to the Central Bank

The Brazilian regulator has set up two entry points. Institutions already supervised only need to make a declaration to sell cryptocurrencies to their clients. Specialized platforms must submit a complete authorization application, reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Itaú Unibanco submitted its declaration on Tuesday.

This regime stems from Resolution BCB 520, enacted under Law 14.478 of 2022, which entrusted the central bank with the oversight of virtual assets. The text imposes a minimum capital requirement on virtual asset service providers (PSAV in local nomenclature). It also requires a strict separation between their own funds and their clients' assets (a rule that was lacking at FTX during the collapse in November 2022).

Speaking of absentees: neither DOGE nor any memecoin is featured in Itaú's offerings. The fifteen listed assets are limited to large capitalizations and two backed tokens, USDC and PAXG backed by gold. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Chainlink, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Avalanche, Uniswap, Aave, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum complete a catalog tailored for compliance rather than for opportunistic trading. ![Itaú Unibanco has notified the Brazilian central bank of its activities in buying, selling, and holding cryptocurrencies. The largest private bank in the country becomes the first to operate under the new regime, which has a regularization period ending on October 30.

Its crypto offering has been active since December 2023 and provides access to fifteen assets, from bitcoin to a token backed by physical gold.](https://journalducoin-com.exactdn.com/app/uploads/2026/10/Banque-Bresil-Itau-Unibanco-crypto-regulateur-loi.png?strip=all&quality=90&webp=90&lazy=1) ![Itaú Unibanco has notified the Brazilian central bank of its activities in buying, selling, and holding cryptocurrencies. The largest private bank in the country becomes the first to operate under the new regime, which has a regularization period ending on October 30.

Its crypto offering has been active since December 2023 and provides access to fifteen assets, from bitcoin to a token backed by physical gold.](https://journalducoin-com.exactdn.com/app/uploads/2026/10/Banque-Bresil-Itau-Unibanco-crypto-regulateur-loi.png?strip=all&quality=90&webp=90) This major bank in Brazil is fully transitioning into crypto -- Source: Compte X

Crypto: Brazilian Banks Compete for the Market

However, Itaú Unibanco is far from alone in the field. Nubank has been selling bitcoin to its clients since 2022 and claims over 100 million users in Latin America. BTG Pactual launched its Mynt platform before introducing its own dollar-backed stablecoin. Among native players, Mercado Bitcoin and Foxbit are navigating their regulatory survival on the same timeline, while Binance acquired the local broker Sim;paul to obtain a license.

Stablecoins dominate the market. Gabriel Galípolo estimates their share at nearly 90% in Brazilian crypto transactions. The central bank governor sees this primarily as a hedge against the depreciation of the real. Resolution 521 now categorizes stablecoin transfers abroad as foreign exchange operations, requiring intermediaries to declare them like any currency transfer and closing a gray area that has existed for years.

The deadline is October 30. Operators who have not submitted either a declaration or an authorization request by then will lose the right to operate in the highest-ranked country in Latin America according to Chainalysis's crypto adoption index. Itaú Unibanco will display its fifteen cryptocurrencies in the same application as its bond funds.

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