Brazil’s Itau Unibanco Creates Asset Management Crypto Unit

The unit will sit inside the bank’s Multimesas (multi-desk) structure and will be run by João Marco Braga da Cunha, a former Hashdex executive with experience in quant trading and macro research, according to media including Livecoins, a Brazilian business news portal.

Itaú Unibanco says the move is part of a broader strategy to innovate its product line.

Size and scope

Itaú Unibanco is the country’s largest private asset manager, overseeing more than R$117 billion (USD $21.6 billion), across 15 investment desks, according to the reports. Its Multimesas structure includes macro, long/short, systematic, equity and structured credit desks staffed by 130 people.

The new crypto desk will merge digital assets into its trading and wealth management services. Itaú Unibanco’s asset management unit already oversees the BITI11 bitcoin ETF, the Itaú Bitcoin Index fund and a bitcoin linked retirement plan, which collectively hold about R$850 million.

The bank recently expanded the number of cryptocurrencies available on its mobile app and hopes to roll out products ranging from bond like instruments to higher volatility crypto funds.

Brazil’s crypto appetite

Brazil Is the largest economy in Latin America. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Brazilian economy ranked tenth in the world by nominal gross domestic product in 2024.

Crypto is also gaining traction among Brazilians. Roughly 26 million people in the country now own digital assets, according to figures from crypto payments firm Triple A. In 2024 alone, about $90 billion worth of crypto transactions were recorded, data from blockchain analytics company Chainalysis shows, and Brazil is 10th worldwide in adoption.

Implications

Itaú Asset’s embrace of digital assets signals mainstream acceptance of crypto within Brazil’s financial sector. The launch suggests that digital assets, which are already popular among Latin American consumers, are now gaining status among institutional investors.

Other regional banks may feel pressure to follow suit to attract clients who increasingly demand exposure to bitcoin, ether and stablecoins.

Itau Unibanco said in 2022 it would create Itau Digital Assets for the tokenization of financial assets, anticipating integration with the bank’s other products, and has allowed crypto trading for investment banking customers since late 2023. It’s also been evaluating developing its own stablecoin, according to reports in April of this year.