Amid the meltdown in the price of cryptocurrencies in international markets, fintech Nubank announced this Wednesday (11) that it decided to invest in Bitcoins.
The digital financial services company said it has allocated about 1% of the capital of parent Nu Holdings in Bitcoin.
“This move reinforces the company’s conviction in the current and future potential of Bitcoin in the disruption of financial services in the region”, says Nubank, in a statement.
In a global macroeconomic environment of inflationary pressure and rising interest rates in developed markets, Bitcoin has experienced a sharp correction in prices, with a decline of around 40% year-to-date.
Along with the announcement of the investment, Nubank also informed that it started to offer the service of buying and selling cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum to its customers. The choice for the two was due to the fact that both are among the most popular cryptocurrencies in the international market, according to fintech.
According to Nubank, interested parties will be able to trade crypto assets from R$1 through the fintech trading platform.
The offer is operated in partnership with Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure provider, which acts as a broker and performs the custody of cryptocurrencies in the Nubank app.
The novelty began to be made available this Wednesday gradually to the company’s customers in Brazil, and the forecast is that the offer will be available for the entire base until June.
“There is no doubt that cryptocurrencies are a growing trend in Latin America. We have been following the market closely and we believe that there is a transformational potential in the region”, said David Velez, CEO and founder of Nubank, in a note.
Bitcoin was down about 3% on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg data, trading around $30,000. It was the seventh session followed by the devaluation of the crypto asset.
Nubank shares plummet 16% in the US
This Wednesday, Nubank’s shares plummeted again on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), in the United States, with a drop of 15.75%, to US$ 3.69, renewing again the historic lows since the IPO (IPO). , in English).
“Apparently, the market did not like this Wednesday’s announcement”, says Danielle Lopes, partner and analyst at Nord Research, adding that investors may have seen in the initiative a certain “despair” on the part of Nubank in an attempt to monetize its customer base.
Since its IPO, when its shares were priced at US$9, Nubank’s shares have fallen by around 60%.
In addition to a higher interest rate environment, which increases the discount rate at which analysts project the long-term earnings of digital tech companies, Nubank is also facing difficulties of its own, with growing questions among investors about the fintech’s ability. to monetize its base of more than 50 million customers, notes Danielle.
“The market seems to no longer see Nubank’s next steps as something solid and that will bring results from now on”, says the Nord partner.
The compensation package for the fintech board of more than BRL 800 million reported in recent days contributed to putting additional pressure on Nubank’s figures, which reports data on the first quarter of 2022 next Monday (16).
Itaú BBA projects a loss of R$371 million for Nubank in the first quarter of the year. “Weak results and new outflows could cause distortions in share prices in the coming days,” analysts at Itaú BBA said in a report published on May 4th.
I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
