Brazilian neobank Nubank has announced that it will halt all buying and selling options of its native cryptocurrency Nucoin.
The company announced last week that Nucoin in-app trading will be suspended in order to control the price fluctuation of the crypto token that has transpired.
Nubank confirmed that holders and investors of the token will still be able to engage with it by benefiting from discounts from Nubank Shopping.
Furthermore, in a bid to protect investors, users can redeem their Nucoin holdings of R$100 and above in exchange for Bitcoin or USDC. Holders also can participate in raffles with a maximum win of more than R$1m.
A company statement read: “Nucoin can no longer be bought and sold and can only be used to exchange benefits within the Nubank product ecosystem.
“By the end of the year, new types of benefits will be incorporated so that the program, which has already gained 16 million users in Brazil, can offer the best possible results.”
If users of Nucoin want to withdraw their holdings, 1,745 frozen or available tokens, they can do so but will not be able to access the benefits of the program. Users with less than 1,745 tokens have been informed they will be unfrozen in due course.
The benefit program was formed in partnership with Polygon Labs, leveraging the latter’s technology and technical support to expand the adoption of Nucoin and in turn, expanding Nubank’s crypto efforts.
Nucoin was announced in late 2022 and launched a few months after. Its initial intention was to become a native token for Nubank app users to trade and interact with, whilst leveraging some of the benefits afforded by the loyalty program.
However, due to a market price decline over the past several months this year which went as high as $0.59, to as low as $0.02, Nubank had to step in to control the price fluctuation.
The Nucoin announcement also raises questions regarding Nubank’s future cryptocurrency efforts and whether they will continue to promote Nucoin.
