Nubank is the largest Latin American digital bank (a.k.a. neobank). This week, they announced plans to launch their own crypto — Nucoin. Uh oh, is that Matt Damon?
You may know one of Nu’s largest shareholders…
… Berkshire Hathaway, run by the famous Warren Buffett. Yes, the same Buffett that’s been highly vocal against crypto.
Nubank is listed as Nu Holdings (NYSE:NU) — having gone public last December, a couple of weeks before peak market. Unfortunately for Nubank, fintechs got hit even harder — sending down 63% since.
- As declined, Berkshire doubled down on the company in February.
- And Buffett, too, is a bag holder (meme: one of us!) — down an estimated 53% on his holdings.
But Nu is built differently. They’re not losing nearly as much as major fintechs — having lost $30M on $400M in sales in the last quarter. They’ve also managed to maintain their triple digital growth — although having slowed significantly.
Nubank channels its inner Matt Damon
…by being brave. Nubank’s bread and butter is online banking — but in recent years, they’ve taken an interest in crypto.
This July, they launched their crypto exchange which reached 1.8M users — a fraction of Coinbase’s 103M registered users. Now they’re going a step further…
By launching their own crypto, Nucoin, by 2023. But it won’t exactly be like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Here’s what we know about the crypto so far:
- Used as a loyalty and engagement tool for its other products.
- Holders will have access to discounts and perks.
Other crypto exchanges like FTX and Binance offer lower trading fees by holding onto their crypto, and. Nucoin could work similarly.
Investors: Cool experiment, bro
Few crypto experiments from major companies have shown much traction. JPMorgan also launched its own stablecoin, JPM Coin — accessible to corporate clients.
But at its core, Nubank is still a digital bank, and investors should look at its crypto as a loyalty program rather than a major driver of revenue. It’s only gravy at this point.
The Average Joe: “We’re keeping our eyes on you,. What worries us is the valuation — but you gotta pay up when buying a company that’s near profitable and growing as fast as it is.”
