Rico, a Brazilian brokerage platform part of XP Inc., announced that it plans to enter the cryptocurrency market next year. The department expands its operations and will also enter the banking sector, launching digital account and credit card services. The platform follows the steps of companies such as Nubank and others that have already included encryption in their service portfolio.
Rico is looking to expand operations to encryption and banking services
Brazilian companies and banks enter cryptocurrency business as a way to offer a complete package of investments under only one organization. Rico, a Brazilian brokerage part of XP Inc., announced that it would expand its range of operations to include new services, including encryption.
The company told Neofeed that it plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange on its platform for next year, as well as to enter the insurance world. In the same way, the company expects to launch a digital account with a linked card by the end of this year.
These products will be operated by Banco XP, but are managed by the Rico brand. The company expects these products to be available to 50% of customers at launch.
Focus on accessibility for young investors
While other competitors focus on institutional investors and large investment accounts, Rico will focus on young players in this field, who earn about $1,000. About this interest in these often overlooked investors, Pedro Canelas of Rico stated:
We want to help customers get healthy consumption so they can become savers, investors and, later, big investors. We’ll get to a part of the population that few people are looking at.
The company is confident that with these additions, it will triple its user base by 2025. According to Canellas, one of the platform’s features will include the possibility of investing from a credit card.
This will ostensibly enable users to pay a portion of their investment monthly, and continue to invest, even at the level of income received by Rico’s regular customer (about $2,000).
Ricoh is the latest platform to add cryptocurrency services in Brazil. New banks such as Nubank and Picpay have also included cryptocurrency trading services on their platforms this year, and even Santander and Itau Unibanco have announced that they will also offer some cryptocurrency-focused services.
However, not every bank is behind this market. Bradescu, Brazil’s second largest bank, recently explained that it was not interested in the crypto market because of its small size.