Corporate clients, mainly small and medium enterprises, account for between 10% and 15% of all assets under custody on Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest crypto exchange, according to Daniel Cunha, the firm’s head of corporate development.
“These companies barely move more than 10% of their holdings at any given time,” Cunha told CoinDesk in an interview at the exchange’s DAC 2025 conference. “They’re here to hold, not trade.”
The firms are primarily using bitcoin to protect their cash reserves from global volatility, he said, citing growing concern over inflation, currency devaluation and geopolitical instability.
The trend grew when companies like Strategy (MSTR) started adopting bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset. Strategy now holds 639,835 BTC, making it the world’s largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency. Publicly-traded companies, as a whole, hold over 1 million BTC, but how much small and medium enterprises hold isn’t known.
Cunha did not reveal the exact figures these companies were holding on Mercado Bitcoin. Brazil has a history of cryptocurrency adoption, ranking fifth in Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index, yet it only has one publicly-traded company holding BTC, Méliuz. OranjeBTC is set to soon list on Brazil’s B3 exchange to become the country’s largest publicly traded corporate holder of the cryptocurrency with $400 million in its treasury.
Cunha said these companies aren’t chasing yield or experimenting with altcoins, but rather are focusing on BTC and stablecoins like USDT and USDC to manage their treasuries. These holdings serve conservative, cash-management purposes rather than speculative plays.
The rise in institutional activity is also having a side effect: it’s reducing the overall volatility of crypto markets, Cunha said. That’s making bitcoin a more appealing option for treasurers, even asthe enterprise segment in Brazil is still just starting to adopt crypto.
“The big guys in Faria Lima? They’re on the sidelines,” he said, referring to the financial district in Brazil’s largest city São Paulo often compared to Wall Street. “They haven’t moved yet. It’s all waiting to happen.”
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