Nubank is feeling brave with plans to launch its own crypto Nucoin

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 $NU down 63% since.

• As $NU 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 $NU 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, $FTT and $BNB. 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, $NU. 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.”