Brazil’s leading investment bank BTG Pactual launches cryptocurrency trading app

The leading Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual has launched a new platform that enables customers to invest directly in cryptocurrencies.

The bank’s Mynt platform currently allows users to buy Bitcoin and Ether, with BTG Pactual expressing its intention to support additional crypto assets in the future. Andre Porthilo, Head of Digital Assets at BTG Pactual, said:

“At this first point, we will have two central market values, but we will include other cryptocurrencies to trade over time. We will have a complete platform with blockchain-based assets. “

Roberto Sallouti, CEO of BTG Pactual, described the creation of Mynt in response to “the demand from our customers who want to trade cryptocurrencies.”

Sallouti added that Mynt plans to host educational content to educate new users about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

According to local news agency The Rio Times, the launch of Mynt BTC makes Pactual the first major Brazilian financial institution to offer its customers “direct participation” in the crypto asset market.

Porthilo claimed that the bank’s status, regulated by both the Brazilian Securities Commission and the local central bank, would credibility the country’s burgeoning crypto sector.

“With the support of BTG Pactual, Mynt has fundamental differences in terms of security and reliability [—] the basic characteristics of a new portfolio that most people do [are] unused,” he added.

Related: Visa is reportedly aiming to integrate bitcoin payments in Brazil

Mynt isn’t BTG Pactual’s first foray into the crypto space as the bank launches the ReitBZ property-backed security token in 2019 after spending a few years testing it.

In April of this year, BTG Pactual also became the first Brazilian investment bank to launch a crypto fund after announcing its Bitcoin 20 Multi-Market Investment Fund.