Bradesco, one of Brazil's largest banks, will custody cryptocurrencies for its clients through blockchain infrastructure platform Fireblocks and has already tested stablecoins for foreign-trade payments, Brazilian news media Exame reports.
Renata Petrovic, Bradesco's head of innovation, said the pilot allowed international transfers to be received on the same day, instead of the usual D+1 or D+2 settlement timeline, meaning one or two business days after the transaction.
Petrovic also said the stablecoin's one-to-one link with the dollar stayed stable during the operations, which helped with pricing and reduced the risk of surprise value changes.
- But it's still unclear whether Bradesco has already started offering crypto custody or is still preparing the service, and the report didn't give a launch date.
- It also didn't say which stablecoins would be supported or which clients would get access first.
Data from Macrotrends shows Bradesco had about $462.4 billion in total assets at the end of March, while its investor-relations site shows more than 10.5 billion shares outstanding as of March 31.
Other Brazilian financial firms have also been testing stablecoins for payments, trading and foreign exchange. Local banks and fintechs such as BTG Pactual, Nubank, Itaú and Braza Bank have also moved into stablecoin or crypto-related products.