Itaú Unibanco Partners With OpenAssets to Test Tokenised Bonds and Funds Under ANBIMA Pilot
Itaú Unibanco Partners With OpenAssets to Test Tokenised Bonds and Funds Under ANBIMA Pilot #
Itaú Unibanco, Latin America’s largest private-sector lender, has joined a blockchain tokenisation pilot overseen by Brazil’s Financial and Capital Markets Association, ANBIMA, working alongside digital-asset infrastructure provider OpenAssets. The companies disclosed the collaboration on Tuesday.
The initiative covers the full lifecycle of capital-market instruments on distributed ledger technology: issuance, trading, and settlement of fixed-income securities, including debentures, a common form of corporate debt in Brazil, as well as investment funds. The partners plan to develop technical proofs of concept, assess tokenisation architecture and standards, and build the operational and compliance frameworks needed for broader institutional adoption.
All tests will run on a private, permissioned ledger with no real financial transactions; the network is closed to the public. Itaú contributes its capital-markets experience while OpenAssets supplies the tokenisation technology.
Itaú holds more than $562 billion in total assets, according to S&P Global. The bank was among the institutions selected by Brazil’s central bank in 2023 to take part in the Drex pilot, which tested blockchain-based transactions using tokenised money and assets. In September 2025, Itaú Asset Management created a dedicated crypto-asset management unit, reportedly the first of its kind among the country’s major asset managers.
OpenAssets, which previously operated under the name Pointsville, raised $10 million in 2025 to develop its tokenisation infrastructure. The round was led by Latin America-focused venture firm Valor Capital Group, with stablecoin issuer Tether and members of the family that founded Itaú Unibanco also participating as investors.
“Brazil has been one of the most forward-looking markets in finance and it is a natural place to move tokenisation from exploration to production,” said Gabor Gurbacs, chairman and chief executive of OpenAssets, according to a press release cited by CoinDesk.
The ANBIMA pilot is one of several blockchain projects in Brazil involving large financial institutions testing distributed-ledger technology on traditional assets.
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