30 Million Brazilian PicPay Customers May Now Buy Bitcoin
In a statement released on Monday, Anderson Chamon, the vice president of technology and products at PicPay, announced, “PicPay will enter the crypto market to lead its popularization not only as an investment, but also as a way to decentralize payments and other financial services.”
The platform will allow its 30 million active customers to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies once it goes live in August 2022.
Ignoring the Downturn
The move follows a trend that has seen other major fintech companies in Brazil enter the digital assets market. It started with Mercado Pago, an arm of Mercado Libre, which partnered with Paxos in early 2021 to allow users in Brazil to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
Later that year, the local ride-hailing company, 99, added the option to purchase and sell BTC on its digital wallet. And in May this year, digital bank Nubank partnered with Paxos to allow its more than 50 million clients to buy and sell Bitcoin.
PicPay is the latest company to join the digital asset industry in Brazil. The move will likely be made in collaboration with Paxos, allowing PicPay’s clients to buy and sell USDP, the Paxos stablecoin, alongside Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
PicPay’s arrival in the market is an indication that there is still demand for digital assets despite the recent bear market. Echoing this sentiment, the company said it “believes that cryptocurrencies will grow again as new ways of using them appear and become commonplace.”
Future Plans
PicPay’s long-term goal is to create a stablecoin pegged to the Brazilian Real. According to the VC, this is because they see no strong stablecoin backed by the Brazilian currency. And believing fintech to be the solution, the company plans to issue a stablecoin, the Brazilian Real Coin (BRC), somewhere in the future.
Additionally, PicPay plans to create a business unit for the tokenization of assets. For this, PicPay has established a cryptocurrency and web3 business unit and will continue hiring talent in the field.
For this year, PicPay aims to create an exchange for Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs where customers can trade through the platform itself. The company’s goal is for customers to be able to trade at least 100 cryptocurrencies on this platform by the end of 2022.
In addition, the platform looks to allow cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. This will allow customers to pay bills and invoices using Bitcoin and other digital assets.