Itaú Unibanco, Brazil’s largest private bank, has become the first bank in the country to formally notify the central bank of its cryptocurrency trading and custody activities.
The bank submitted its notification on October 27, three days ahead of the October 30 deadline set for financial institutions that were already offering crypto services.
The filing covers both trading and holding digital assets. Through its Íon investment platform, Itaú already lets customers buy and sell 15 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDC. Because the bank is already supervised by the central bank, it did not have to apply for a brand-new license. A notification was enough.
Itaú has been letting customers trade crypto since December 2023. At the start, people could buy Bitcoin and Ethereum on the Íon platform. In June 2024 the bank opened the service to everyone using the platform. Guto Antunes, who runs Itaú Digital Assets, said at the time that the wider rollout came after customer surveys showed solid interest in crypto. Since then the list has grown to 15 assets. The bank still has not said how many people use the service or how much volume has gone through it.
Other Brazilian banks have been moving in the same direction. In September, Nubank had 28 cryptocurrencies available for its customers, while Banco do Brasil began trading Bitcoin and Ethereum earlier. Folha de S.Paulo conducted research and discovered that, by March of 2026, despite offering trading and storage of cryptocurrencies to their clients, Brazilian banks had no cryptocurrencies on their records. Itaú is also taking part in ANBIMA’s digital asset pilot to explore how the bank would handle the issuance, trading and settlement of digital bonds and funds.
The new crypto rules in Brazil started on February 2, 2026. Under Resolution 520, banks that already have a central-bank license can offer crypto services by filing a notification. Institutions that were already doing this when the rules kicked in got 270 days to comply, until October 30. They also have to attach an independent technical report showing they meet the regulator’s operational and security standards. Anyone who misses the deadline has to shut down their crypto services within 30 days.
Crypto exchanges and other pure-play virtual asset companies face a tougher process. They need to apply for full authorization. Estimates suggest fewer than 10% of crypto firms will actually go through with it. Many smaller companies are worried about the cost of compliance and the capital requirements. Binance did file its application before October 30. Mercado Bitcoin, one of the bigger local exchanges, has also said it plans to seek authorization.
The central bank has tweaked the timeline for dealing with unauthorized providers. Through Resolution 589 it pushed back the start of the ban on transacting with them from October 30 to November 6. From that date, banks and other supervised firms will mostly be barred from doing crypto business with providers that are neither authorized nor covered by an exception.
Extra reporting rules for crypto companies during the transition, things like customer balances, custody holdings and proof of reserves, are set to start on January 1, 2027. Since October 1, crypto transfers worth $10,000 or more to or from self-custody wallets must be reported to Coaf, Brazil’s financial intelligence unit. Itaú is the first major Brazilian bank to notify the central bank of its crypto activities under the new rules.
It shows that traditional banks can move relatively quickly to meet the requirements, while dedicated crypto companies still have a heavier authorization process ahead of them.
