What to Know

  • Itaú Unibanco has started working with OpenAssets on a tokenization pilot run by Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association ANBIMA.
  • The pilot will test how fixed-income securities and investment funds can be issued, traded and settled using distributed-ledger technology.
  • The work will also examine rules and technical standards for banks and asset managers using tokenized financial infrastructure.
  • Itaú is Latin America’s largest bank by assets, with more than $562 billion in total assets.
  • Brazil has become a major testing ground for regulated tokenization across bonds, credit, receivables, funds and other assets.
  • Citi has estimated tokenized securities could become a $5.5 trillion market by 2030.
  • Brazilian initiatives have included plans from VERT Capital to tokenize as much as $1 billion of debt and receivables on the XDC Network and Mercado Bitcoin’s plan to tokenize $200 million in assets on the XRP Ledger.
  • Itaú was also selected for Brazil’s central bank Drex pilot in 2023, which tested blockchain-based transactions involving tokenized money and assets.

Itaú Adds Institutional Weight to Brazil’s Tokenization Drive

Brazil’s push to move traditional financial products onto blockchain-based infrastructure has gained another major institutional participant, with Itaú Unibanco working alongside digital-asset infrastructure provider OpenAssets in a tokenization pilot run by Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association ANBIMA.

The initiative is focused on testing how fixed-income securities and investment funds can be issued, traded and settled through distributed-ledger technology. For Brazil’s capital markets, the pilot is less about speculative crypto trading and more about the modernization of financial plumbing: the systems that support issuance, ownership records, transaction processing, settlement and compliance.

Itaú’s participation gives the project substantial credibility. The São Paulo-based lender is Latin America’s largest bank by assets, with more than $562 billion in total assets. Its presence signals that tokenization is no longer limited to crypto-native firms or isolated innovation labs. Instead, it is increasingly being treated as a possible operating model for mainstream banks, asset managers and market infrastructure providers.

For FXCOINZ, the development highlights a broader shift in digital assets: the most durable blockchain use cases may emerge in regulated markets where institutions are looking to reduce operational friction, broaden access to financial products and improve transparency across the asset life cycle.

What the ANBIMA Pilot Is Testing

The ANBIMA initiative will test tokenized fixed-income securities and investment funds across the stages that matter most for institutional adoption: issuance, trading and settlement. In traditional markets, these processes often involve multiple intermediaries, separate recordkeeping systems and reconciliation between participants. Distributed-ledger technology is designed to create a shared record that can reduce duplication and make transaction status easier to verify.

The pilot will also examine the rules and technical standards needed for banks and asset managers to operate within tokenized systems. That point is critical. Tokenization is not simply the act of representing an asset as a digital token. For regulated financial institutions, it requires reliable custody models, investor eligibility controls, settlement procedures, data standards, governance frameworks and compatibility with existing market regulations.

Technical traders and digital-asset specialists often focus on blockchain networks and token design, but large banks tend to focus first on legal enforceability and operational resilience. A tokenized bond or fund must still represent a real financial claim. It must also behave predictably under the rules that govern investor rights, transfers, servicing and redemptions.

That is why pilots such as ANBIMA’s matter. They provide a controlled environment for institutions to evaluate whether tokenized systems can handle core capital-market functions without weakening investor protection or regulatory oversight.

Brazil Emerges as a Tokenization Testing Ground

Brazil has become one of the most active markets for regulated tokenization experiments. The country’s financial sector has already seen initiatives that stretch well beyond narrow bank pilots, with projects involving credit, receivables, fixed income, equity instruments and even real-economy assets.

In July 2025, Brazilian credit structuring and securitization firm VERT Capital unveiled plans to tokenize as much as $1 billion of debt and receivables on the XDC Network. That plan underlined how tokenization could be applied to private credit and structured finance, areas where improved transparency and more efficient distribution may be especially attractive to market participants.

Brazil-based crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin also shared plans to tokenize $200 million in assets on the XRP Ledger, including fixed-income and equity instruments. That initiative placed tokenization at the intersection of crypto market infrastructure and traditional investment products, showing how exchanges can play a role in distributing tokenized financial instruments.

The country’s experimentation has also reached a very different part of the economy. Farmers in Paraná, who faced difficulty obtaining bank loans, tokenized 10 cows and put the tokens up for trading through infrastructure connected to Brazil’s B3 exchange. While unusual, the example illustrates one of tokenization’s wider promises: creating digital representations of assets that might otherwise be hard to finance, fractionalize or trade.

Why Tokenized Bonds and Funds Matter

Tokenized fixed-income securities and investment funds are among the most closely watched applications of blockchain technology in traditional finance. Bonds and funds already rely on formal records of ownership, transfer rules and servicing processes, making them natural candidates for digitization. In theory, tokenization can make these records more programmable, easier to audit and faster to update.

For fixed-income markets, tokenization may support more efficient issuance and settlement. It could also help create new channels for distributing debt instruments, particularly if compliance rules can be embedded into the transaction process. For investment funds, tokenization may improve recordkeeping, allow more flexible transfer models and potentially simplify fund administration.

However, institutional adoption depends on more than technology. Market participants need clarity around settlement finality, investor rights, custody, disclosures and secondary-market rules. Banks and asset managers also need confidence that tokenized systems can integrate with internal risk, accounting and compliance processes.

This is where Itaú’s role is important. A large, regulated bank can test tokenized processes against the demands of real financial institutions, not just theoretical blockchain design. If those tests show practical benefits without creating unacceptable operational or legal risks, tokenization could move further toward production-level use in Brazil’s financial markets.

Wall Street Interest Meets Brazilian Market Experimentation

Tokenization has become one of Wall Street’s preferred use cases for blockchain technology. Banks and asset managers have been experimenting with tokenized bonds, funds, private credit and equities as they look for ways to modernize market infrastructure while remaining within regulated frameworks.

Citi has estimated that tokenized securities could grow into a $5.5 trillion market by 2030 as financial assets move onto blockchain-based systems. That estimate has helped frame tokenization as a long-term institutional opportunity rather than a passing digital-asset trend.

Brazil’s activity fits into that global narrative, but with a distinct local edge. The country has combined bank participation, crypto-native infrastructure, capital-market pilots and central bank experimentation. That mix gives Brazil a broad testing base, from large lenders to fintech platforms and from conventional securities to real-world assets.

Itaú’s involvement in the ANBIMA pilot also follows its earlier participation in the Drex pilot. The lender was among the institutions selected by Brazil’s central bank in 2023 for tests involving blockchain-based transactions with tokenized money and assets. That continuity suggests a sustained institutional interest in how digital ledgers could support future financial-market infrastructure.

OpenAssets’ Role in the Pilot

OpenAssets is providing digital-asset infrastructure expertise for the Itaú collaboration. The company raised $10 million last year to build tokenization infrastructure, with the round led by Latin America-focused venture firm Valor Capital Group. Participating investors included USDT stablecoin issuer Tether and members of the family that founded Itaú Unibanco.

OpenAssets chairman and CEO Gabor Gurbacs described Brazil as one of the most forward-looking markets in finance and a natural place to move tokenization from exploration to production. That framing captures the industry’s current inflection point. Many institutions have already studied tokenization in concept; the next challenge is proving that it can work within regulated workflows at scale.

For infrastructure providers, the opportunity is to build systems that banks and asset managers can trust. That means supporting compliance controls, interoperability, security and institutional-grade operations. For banks, the challenge is to decide whether tokenization can deliver enough efficiency and market access benefits to justify integration with existing systems.

What Comes Next for Brazil’s Tokenization Market

The ANBIMA pilot is unlikely to settle every question around tokenized finance, but it may help define the standards that shape future adoption. If banks, asset managers and market bodies can agree on technical and legal frameworks, tokenized securities may become easier to issue and trade within regulated environments.

Still, some caution is warranted. Tokenization does not automatically create liquidity, eliminate credit risk or solve all settlement challenges. A tokenized asset still depends on the quality of the underlying asset, the legal structure behind it and the willingness of market participants to use the system. The benefits are most likely to appear where blockchain infrastructure improves processes that are currently slow, fragmented or costly.

Brazil’s advantage is that it is testing tokenization across multiple layers of finance rather than treating it as a single niche product. With Itaú, OpenAssets, ANBIMA and other market participants exploring practical use cases, the country is positioning itself as a significant laboratory for institutional blockchain adoption.

For FXCOINZ readers, the key takeaway is that tokenization is moving deeper into regulated finance. The conversation is shifting from whether real-world assets can be represented on blockchains to how banks, asset managers and market associations can make those representations legally sound, operationally robust and useful for investors.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Itaú doing in Brazil’s tokenization market?

Itaú Unibanco is working with OpenAssets on an ANBIMA-run pilot that will test tokenized fixed-income securities and investment funds using distributed-ledger technology.

Who is running the tokenization pilot?

The pilot is being run by Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association ANBIMA, with Itaú and OpenAssets participating in work focused on tokenized issuance, trading and settlement.

What assets are being tested in the pilot?

The pilot will focus on fixed-income securities and investment funds. It will examine how these products can be issued, traded and settled through blockchain-based systems.

Why is Itaú’s participation significant?

Itaú is Latin America’s largest bank by assets, with more than $562 billion in total assets. Its involvement gives the pilot strong institutional weight and shows that major banks are actively evaluating tokenized finance.

Has Itaú worked on tokenization before?

Yes. Itaú was among the institutions selected by Brazil’s central bank in 2023 to participate in the Drex pilot, which tested blockchain-based transactions involving tokenized money and assets.

Why is Brazil important for tokenization?

Brazil has become a key hub for tokenization experiments involving bonds, credit, receivables, investment funds and real-world assets. Its financial institutions and market infrastructure are actively testing blockchain-based models under regulated structures.

What other tokenization projects have appeared in Brazil?

VERT Capital unveiled plans in July 2025 to tokenize as much as $1 billion of debt and receivables on the XDC Network, while Mercado Bitcoin shared plans to tokenize $200 million in assets on the XRP Ledger.

What does tokenization mean for investors?

Tokenization can create digital representations of traditional assets, potentially improving recordkeeping, settlement and access. However, investor outcomes still depend on the underlying asset, legal structure, market liquidity and regulatory framework.

How large could the tokenized securities market become?

Citi has estimated that tokenized securities could grow into a $5.5 trillion market by 2030 as more financial assets move onto blockchain-based systems.

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