Today digital bank Nubank announced plans for a cryptocurrency Nucoin. The platform, with 70 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, is planning to provide the tokens as rewards to customers, enabling them to get discounts and other benefits.
Initially, it is selecting 2,000 customers to create a web3 community to shape the creation of the cryptocurrency. In 2023, the token will be distributed for free to all customers. However, in the early days, it won’t be tradable on a crypto exchange, but there are plans to do so in the future. Nubank already offers cryptocurrency trading as part of its solution.
The digital bank will use the Polygon public blockchain for the tokens.
In August, MercadoLibre, the major Brazilian online retailer, announced similar plans for MercadoCoin.
In Japan, the largest bank MUFG recently launched a wallet for utility tokens that can be used by retailers for rewards. Belgium’s KBC Bank introduced its Kate Coin as part of a loyalty program. Bakkt, founded by New York Stock Exchange operator ICE, is one of the biggest proponents of using crypto for rewards.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian securities regulator CVM has issued guidance on what sorts of crypto-assets are considered to be securities. Its concept of a security is inspired by the U.S. Howey test. The is based on whether there’s an investment of money in a common enterprise with the expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others.
