A brokerage platform firm in Brazil, Rico, has said it will enter the crypto service business next year. Rico is an arm of XP Inc. and it is expanding its operations to also include banking. It will launch credit card services alongside its planned digital account services.
In Tandem with the Trends
Rico is following the trend of firms such as Nubank and the rest that have begun trading crypto. They opened the floodgate of Brazilian financial institutions entering the digital assets sector so they can offer their customers a full investment package in one organization. The planned expansion of Rico is the latest in the series.
The company said in a statement obtained by Neofeed that it is working to have a crypto exchange running on its brokerage platform sometime in 2023. Rico said it was to equally diversify into insurance in the same period. It also said it hopes to launch digital account services that have cards linked to them by the end of 2022.
The mentioned products are going to be offered by Banco XP but they will be managed via Rico. The company is working to have the said products available to half of its customers as soon as it is launched.
Although most other competing companies are focused on serving large accounts and institutional investors, Rico said it looks out to serve smaller crypto players. The target clients for Rico typically have an income of around $1,000.
A Defined Market Base
The company’s Pedro Canellas said of the overlooked segment of investors that Rico wants to help them have a good habit of saving. They should begin to invest gradually till they are able to invest hugely. Canellas said Rico is going for the population that is largely overlooked.
Rico has sufficient confidence that this will help it triple its customer numbers by 2025. Canellas said the platform will include a feature to help people invest directly from a credit card. Users will then be able to pay monthly for their investment and keep at it.
Rico is only the latest Brazilian entity to take up the venture of crypto investment. Banks like Picpay and Nubank took the lead this year by offering their customers crypto services. Itau Unibanco and Santander have made announcements about their future crypto offering plans.
Not every Brazilian bank is, however, in tune with this new trend. Brazil’s second-biggest bank, Bradesco, recently said it is not interested in diversifying into crypto because of its small market.