The new exchange will compete with the big global competitors and bring the innovative universe of cryptocurrencies to the traditional financial market
In 2013, Rodrigo Batista founded Brazil’s first cryptocurrency exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, and was its CEO and controller until 2019, when he sold the company with 1.5 million customers.
After the sale, he began building his new venture, Digitra.com, a global exchange, built with a focus on technology, compliance, and governance – compiling Rodrigo and his team’s experience in the financial and cryptocurrency markets.
In his search for partners for the new venture, Rodrigo met Ricardo Villela Marino. Ricardo is a shareholder and had an international executive career at Itaú, the largest bank in Latin America, founded by his great-grandfather. He is currently a board member at Valor Capital and has as his professional background the participation in global financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
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With Ricardo’s financial and international experience and Rodrigo’s global ambition, the executives decided to join together in building the new company.
In doing so, the Profitus fund, controlled by Ricardo, made a $5 million investment in the group created by Rodrigo. The funds will be used to accelerate the operations of Digitra.com, which is already born global, serving customers in all countries that do not restrict trading in digital currencies. The startup hopes to grow by joining the innovative universe of cryptocurrencies in the traditional financial market.
In addition to the cryptocurrency exchange, the investment will also be used in the expansion of other projects of the same group: in the development of the Real’s stablecoin developed by company nTokens, in the creation of a new stock exchange of startups – already authorized by CVM (Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission) in partnership with SMU investments – and of Atris, a technology company specialized in creating new exchanges of various assets, such as energy, carbon credits, among others.
“We have created a business model that is disruptive to the crypto market globally and will simultaneously encourage financial inclusion through digital assets. Digitra.com has everything to lead the innovations in this market in the coming years,” says Marino.
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The new company wants to take some space occupied by companies like Binance, a global leader created in 2017, and FTX, launched less than three years ago and recently valued at $30 billion.
“I don’t see why a company created in Brazil cannot aspire to be in this group of global companies. We are working hard, and Brazil is a reference when it comes to governance and security in the financial market,” says Rodrigo.
Digitra.com aims to reach 1 million customers in the first year of operation. The application is now available for advance registration to customers worldwide, and trading is scheduled to launch in July 2022.
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