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Brazil’s Biggest Investment Firm XP Investimentos to Launch Cryptocurrency Exchange

Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:06 PM
Francisco Memoria
Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:06 PM

Brazilian investment giant XP Investimentos, a financial services firm managing over $35 billion for over 500,000 clients, is reportedly going to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. According to the country’s Department of Federal Revenue, XP Investimentos has recently registered XDEX INTERMEDIACAO LTDA, whose registered capital is of about $7.3 million.

Available data shows the new company was initially registered as XP COIN INTERMEDIACAO in August 2017. In November, when most cryptocurrencies started surging, the exchange received capital and turned to XDEX. Earlier this year, it received about 80 percent of its $7.3 million.

According to local news outlet Portal do Bitcoin , data from the Department of Federal Revenue shows the company is related to XP Investimentos. Its website, Xdex.com.br, is at press time unavailable.

While not much is known about the new cryptocurrency exchange, the local news outlet claims an unnamed source revealed it’ll focus on over-the-counter trading. Its report reads (roughly translated):

“It is not yet known what services the new exchange will provide. A source, who did not want to be identified, said that the action will be in the so-called over-the-counter market. That is: focused on movements of large volumes of capital and BTC.”

XP Investimentos has seemingly been researching the crypto space for a while, as back in October 2017 it was revealed it registered the “XP Bitcoin” brand. At the time, a local news outlet queried the company, which then revealed it was studying cryptocurrency markets. One month later, the investment giant hired Fernando Ulrich, a Brazilian cryptocurrency expert

This comes at a time in which Brazil’s cryptocurrency exchanges and businesses created “rival” cryptocurrency associations. The two “rival” associations aren’t yet certain on how cryptocurrencies should be regulated in the country. Fernando Furlan, president of one of these associations, stated:

“There is legal uncertainty. Depending on the purpose, it may be considered a means of payment or a financial asset. “ .

The investment giant’s move may come at the right time. As covered by CCN.com, Brazil’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Foxbit recently went down for over 72 hours, as some users were able to take advantage of the company’s withdrawal system to duplicate 130 withdrawals. Foxbit later recovered and started processing withdrawals during its downtime, before coming back online.