Key Takeaways Itaú filed a notification, not a license request. The bank holds the keys to customers’ coins. Crypto balances have no FGC deposit protection. Round-trip fees reach 3.9% on smal
Brazil’s largest private bank notified the central bank on October 27 that it provides crypto intermediation and custody, Valor Econômico reported. Under the new rules, offering both services together counts as virtual-asset brokerage. The bank has not disclosed how many customers hold crypto with it or how much they trade.
Itaú opened Bitcoin and Ether trading in December 2023 through its íon investment platform and kept the coins in its own custody. The menu has grown to 15 assets, including Solana, XRP, USDC and the gold-backed Pax Gold, according to a customer guide the bank published on October 26. Purchases start at R$10.
The filing was due because of Resolution BCB 520, which took effect on February 2. Firms already providing crypto services had 270 days, until October 30, to formalize their position. Specialist exchanges have to apply for a license and go through a two-phase review that tests their finances, cybersecurity and internal controls. Banks that already hold a central-bank license have a shorter route: they notify the regulator.
A shorter route still has requirements. The notification must include an independent technical certification that the bank’s crypto operation meets the resolution’s requirements. The central bank can also request more information and, in specified cases, order the activity to stop. What Itaú gained on October 27 was permission to keep running its existing service while the regulator examines it.
Itaú describes its model as institutional custody. In its October guide, the bank tells customers they do not need to manage digital wallets or private keys. Itaú controls the keys, and the bank’s systems sign every movement of the underlying coins.
For many customers, that is the appeal. They have no recovery phrase to lose and no wallet software to secure, and crypto sits next to their savings and investments in a single app. The trade-off is trust. The figure on the screen is the bank’s record of what the customer owns, and its accuracy depends on Itaú’s internal controls. Some banks have entered crypto through custody alone, as Deutsche Bank’s plan shows. Itaú combines custody with execution, so it is responsible for both the trade and the coins left afterward.
Brazil’s rules target that trust gap directly. Providers must keep customer assets separate from their own, document how they do it, prove their reserves, and submit to independent audits whose reports are made public. A September amendment, Resolution BCB 589, adds a reporting layer. From January 1, 2027, providers send the central bank figures on customer balances, total coins in custody, verifiable reserves by asset and any staking positions.
That reporting goes to the supervisor. Customers still see their holdings through account statements. What changes is that the central bank can compare the total of those statements against the coins Itaú reports holding.
Itaú’s íon product page lists what the service offers: buying and selling, statements, quotes, and crypto and real balances, available around the clock. It says nothing about sending coins to an outside wallet or receiving them from one. At the 2023 launch, the head of Itaú Digital Assets told Tecnoblog that both directions would be unavailable at first.
For anyone who wants to move Bitcoin into a hardware wallet later, this matters more than anything else in the service. An Itaú position can be closed by selling it for reais. Whether it can leave the bank as coins is a question to confirm in the app before buying, not after.
Moving coins out is also more visible to the authorities than it used to be. Since October 1, regulated providers have had to report any transfer to or from a self-custodied wallet worth US$10,000 or more to Coaf, Brazil’s financial intelligence unit, as Capital Aberto explained. The rule does not ban self-custody. It applies to every regulated provider in Brazil, not only Itaú.
What bank custody covers, and what it does not
Covered: safekeeping of the keys, separation of customer coins from the bank’s own holdings, audits and central-bank reporting on reserves.
Not covered: the Fundo Garantidor de Créditos (FGC), the guarantee fund that compensates eligible depositors when a bank fails. Itaú’s own FAQ states that crypto investments fall outside it.
Never covered: a fall in the price of the asset itself.
Itaú charges an intermediation fee on every completed purchase and every completed sale. The rate falls as the order size rises. The figures below come from the íon fee schedule. The round-trip column assumes the sale is the same size as the purchase.
Order size Fee per trade Buy + sell R$10 – R$599.99 1.95% 3.90% R$600 – R$5,999.99 1.85% 3.70% R$6,000 – R$11,999.99 1.75% 3.50% R$12,000 – R$35,999.99 1.60% 3.20% R$36,000 – R$59,999.99 1.40% 2.80% R$60,000 – R$119,999.99 1.25% 2.50% R$120,000 – R$499,999.99 0.95% 1.90% R$500,000 and above 0.50% 1.00%In practice, a customer who buys R$1,000 of Bitcoin pays R$18.50 on the way in. Selling the position at the same value costs another R$18.50, for a total of R$37 before any change in price. Orders can take up to 10 minutes to execute, according to the íon FAQ, so the final price can differ from the quote shown when the order is placed.
The schedule rewards size. A customer who builds a position in many small purchases pays the top rate on each of them, while one larger order lands in a cheaper band. For small, frequent buyers, the fee is the largest cost they control.
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Itaú’s filing makes the service more accountable to the regulator. It leaves the customer’s own checks unchanged. Before buying, a customer should know which assets can be bought and whether any of them can be sent out as coins rather than sold for reais. They should know the fee band each order will fall into and that their balance has no FGC protection. For larger amounts, it also helps to know that any future move to a private wallet above US$10,000 is reported to Coaf.
The bank now has to back up, under supervision, the custody promise it has been making to customers since 2023. Customers still have to decide whether a bank-held balance meets their needs.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments involve market and custody risks, and fees and service terms may change.
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