Itaú Unibanco joins ANBIMA pilot to tokenize fixed-income and funds. Brazil's largest bank tests blockchain settlement with OpenAssets.
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Brazil’s largest bank is taking another step into tokenized assets, joining a pilot run by the country’s financial markets association that will test blockchain-based issuance and settlement.
Itaú Unibanco has started working with digital-asset infrastructure provider OpenAssets on a tokenization pilot organized by the Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association ANBIMA, the companies said Tuesday. The project will examine how fixed-income securities and investment funds can be issued and traded, with settlement using distributed-ledger technology. The work also covers the rules and technical standards needed for banks and asset managers to use such systems, the firms said in a press release.
Itaú’s involvement gives the effort some weight. The São Paulo-based bank is Latin America’s largest lender, with more than $562 billion in total assets, according to S&P Global.
Tokenization has become a major use case for blockchain technology across Wall Street, with banks and asset managers experimenting with bonds, funds, private credit and equities on digital ledgers. Citi has estimated that tokenized securities could grow into a $5.5 trillion market by 2030 as financial assets move onto blockchain-based systems.
Brazil has emerged as a hub for tokenization, with initiatives stretching well beyond bank-run pilots. In July 2025, Brazilian credit structuring firm VERT Capital unveiled plans to tokenize as much as $1 billion of debt and receivables on the XDC Network. 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. More recently, tokenization reached a different corner of Brazil’s economy: dairy cows. Farmers in Paraná, who struggled to obtain bank loans, tokenized 10 cows and put the tokens up for trading through infrastructure connected to Brazil’s B3 exchange.
This ANBIMA initiative is not Itaú’s first foray into tokenization. The lender 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.
“Brazil has been one of the most forward-looking markets in finance and it is a natural place to move tokenization from exploration to production,” said Gabor Gurbacs, chairman and CEO of OpenAssets.
OpenAssets itself raised $10 million last year to build tokenization infrastructure. The round was led by Latin America-focused venture firm Valor Capital Group, with participating investors including USDT stablecoin issuer Tether and members of the family that founded Itaú Unibanco.
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