Mercado Libre to Expand Crypto Trading Across Latin America

Mercado Libre, Latin America’s largest e-commerce company by market value, plans to expand its crypto trading feature across the region after a successful start in Brazil.

In December, users of Mercado Pago, Mercado Libre’s digital wallet, were allowed to buy and sell bitcoin, ether and stablecoin USDP$0.9999 in Brazil after an integration with Paxos blockchain infrastructure.

“We will be expanding in the region the possibility to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in your account,” Mercado Libre’s fintech vertical director Osvaldo Gimenez told the Spanish newspaper El País. “It works with bitcoin, with ethereum and with a stable currency that reflects the value of the dollar,” he added.

Contacted by CoinDesk, Mercado Libre did not provide details on exactly which countries were next in line for the product or any tentative dates.

Read more: Half of Latin Americans Have Used Cryptocurrencies, Mastercard Survey Shows

The company’s crypto-trading feature became available in Brazil in December and hit 1 million users two months later, according to the story. Last month, Nubank, the largest Brazilian digital bank by market value, said it reached 1 million users on its crypto trading platform just one month after its June launch.

“It is an alternative investment opportunity that we find very interesting and generates a lot of interest from users,” Gimenez said. “At a time when the dollar has been appreciating, the investments that users have with us are small and for us, it is one more way to diversify their portfolio.”

Mercado Libre is an owner of bitcoin, having disclosed a $7.8 million purchase in May 2021. In January of this year, the company announced an investment in 2TM – the holding company for Brazil's largest crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin – and blockchain infrastructure company Paxos.