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B3, Brazil’s stock exchange, is the latest institution planning to join the cryptocurrency scene next year. The San Pablo-based exchange is exploring digital asset custody and crypto-as-a-service (CaaS) segments, reported InfoMoney, citing a presentation from B3 President Gilson Finkelsztain made last week. Besides asset tokenization, B3 is also considering facilitating over-the-counter (OTC) trading services and access to liquidity centers. “It is natural for us to expand into the unregulated world of cryptocurrencies,” said Finkelsztain. He further said that B3 is not planning to be a crypto exchange but only to provide services to crypto traders. The exchange also expects to launch a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). Already, five crypto ETFs have been launched in Brazil, but B3 didn’t establish which index its potential ETF would track. A couple of months back, Brazil’s central bank said that B3 could serve as the blockchain leader for the smart contract system of its CBDC, digital real.
Germany & Switzerland Join Too
This week, the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV) confirmed on Monday that it is considering enabling its customers to trade crypto in the first half of 2022. “The interest in crypto assets is enormous; the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe also sees it,” a DSGV spokesman told Business Insider. He further said that the S-Payment team, a subsidiary of the DSV Group that specializes in payment services, is already working on a pilot project to examine the possibilities and risks of a wallet for their customers to safely store their crypto assets. There are also reports that the bank is planning to enable its customers to buy crypto directly from their checking accounts. Currently, there are about 370 savings banks under DSGV, and it boasts a combined customer base of around 50 million and €1.4 trillion ($1.58 trillion) in assets under management. Another bank, Switzerland’s largest online bank, Swissquote, shared its plan to set up its own trading platform for digital currencies before the end of the first half of 2022. “We want to enable more trading in various cryptocurrencies on the platform,” said sales manager Jan De Schepper. The bank aims to add more crypto to its offering, including stablecoins and staking services. The Swiss bank currently supports 24 cryptos and reported an increase of more than 1,000% to 63.2 million Swiss francs in net income from crypto investments in the first half of 2021. Swissquote has already increased its workforce in response to the surging demand for crypto, with De Schepper noting, “Our compliance and customer service teams were almost overrun by the crypto rush.”