The Brazilian Grupo Caldeira OTC, a crypto trading desk for institutional clients, and Urban, a developer of technological infrastructure for virtual assets and global payments, announced their merger under the Urban brand. According to the companies, together they have moved more than US$4.17 billion in virtual assets so far in 2026.
The operation had the strategic advice of UP TO Capital and the legal advice of Demarest Advogados; financial terms were not disclosed. The combined company is headquartered in São Paulo and has an operational presence in Rio de Janeiro, and serves fintechs, financial institutions and corporate treasuries.
Each part contributes what the other lacks. Caldeira OTC, founded in 2019 in Niterói (Rio de Janeiro) and specialized in liquidity, arbitration and market making, includes the trading desk, liquidity in crypto assets and the commercial area. Urban provides its own automation technology, API integration and traceability.
The new company works on three fronts: liquidity provision for institutional operations, cross-border payments and transfers with virtual assets, and a crypto-as-a-service model in which Urban makes its infrastructure available to partners to develop their own products.
A combined team leading the operation
The merged company is led by Yago Carvalho (CEO) and Caroline Caldeira (COO), co-founders of Caldeira OTC, and Cristian Luján (CFO), founder of Urban, who completes the executive trio. Israel Lujan takes over as director of operational treasury and Rafael Steinfeld as legal director.
According to the partners, the conversations began due to the complementarity of the businesses, and the new regulatory requirements for capital, governance and controls reinforced the decision to unite the operations.
The merger takes place days before a key deadline for the sector: on October 30, the transition regime established by the Central Bank of Brazil expires with resolutions 519, 520 and 521, in force since February 2, which forces companies that were already operating to request authorization as a company providing virtual asset services (SPSAV) to continue operating while the order is analyzed. Urban prepares his application.
The regulatory context weighs: at the end of September, the Central Bank had received only seven orders when it expected between 100 and 150, which reflects the difficulty of the sector to adapt to the new demands in the largest crypto market in Latin America.
