In recent news, one of the largest investment banks in Brazil has come forth with a plan for stablecoins. Reportedly BTG Pactual which is one of Latin America’s largest investment banks is gearing up to launch its own stablecoin.
Sources reveal that the value of the upcoming stablecoin will be tied to the American dollar. The investment banking giant joined the digital assets industry years ago by issuing a security token called ReitBZ and later introduced a cryptocurrency exchange in Brazil.
According to media reports, Banco BTG Pactual S.A. which is popularly known as BTG Pactual will strengthen its presence in the digital asset sector by designing a stablecoin called BTG Dol.
The asset will also be available on Mynt i.e. the bank’s cryptocurrency platform and will be pegged to the official currency of the United States.
The investment banking giant described the upcoming financial product as a new tool that could “dollarize” the investors’ portfolios. It also puts forward a promise to provide “the whole security framework for the asset, such as due diligence, anti-money laundering, and compliance processes.”
Marcel Monteiro, Mynt’s Head of operations appreciated the upcoming development, stating this will be the 23rd token supported by the platform and the only one issued by it. It said:
We recently launched eight new assets. We already have 22 cryptocurrencies on the platform. Now we have our own stablecoin.
Notably, BTG Pactual started exploring the cryptocurrency sector in May 2020 by issuing a token on the Tezos (XTZ) blockchain. The company’s first security token, ReitBZ, is backed by Brazilian real estate and takes part in security token offerings (STOs).
Andre Portilho – Head of Digital Assets at BTG Pactual – said:
We decided to issue ReitBZ in partnership with the Tezos Foundation to test the Tezos blockchain so that we can use the technology to execute more complex future STOs. We are confident that the Tezos solution is technically robust, and this issuance enables us to guarantee more resources to invest in ReitBZ moving forward.
The investment banking giant has taken numerous efforts to embrace and appreciates crypto technologies. Earlier in 2022, Portilho had said that “crypto is a new technology with great potential for transformation, and it brings both risks and opportunities.”
Banks around the world have been stepping up to adopt digital assets. In January, the National Australia Bank (NAB), one of Australia’s largest four financial institutions in terms of market capitalization, announced its plan to launch a fully backed stablecoin called AUDN. It has been said that the stablecoin will be launched on the Ethereum network and Algorand blockchain, a smart contract platform similar to Ethereum.
Soon after that, in March, the bank announced the successful execution of the cross-border transaction via its stablecoin. This also marked the first-ever cross-border stablecoin transfer by a renowned financial institution on the layer 1 blockchain.
While there has been regulatory uncertainty around stablecoins, it is important to note that financial institutions have been progressively moving towards it. The increasing interest of financial institutions has also led to global agencies developing platforms dedicated to stablecoins.
Recently, Red Date Technology, a Chinese blockchain infrastructure company, announced that it is working on a SWIFT-like model dedicated to stablecoins. According to its whitepaper, the only accepted payment methods are regulated fiat-backed stablecoin systems and CBDCs. No unregulated public-chain crypto-currencies, including Bitcoin, will be accepted.