Mercado Pago is the financial wallet section of Mercado Libre. This Mexican e-tail company has just announced that it will be offering cryptocurrency trading services to Mexico. The company has already launched this kind of service in Brazil, serving one million customers in the country, allowing them to purchase, store, and sell bitcoin and ethereum, and also to receive Mercado Libre’s own token, mercadocoin.
Mercado Pago Debuts Crypto Purchases in Mexico
Mercado Pago aims to increase its presence in Mexico by offering cryptocurrency services. This company is a wallet arm for Mercado Libre. announcedIt has made it possible for Mexican customers to buy crypto using their national fiat currency. In this way, every customer in Mexico is now able to purchase bitcoin and ether using funds available in Mercado Pago’s native wallet.
Mexican customers who have been clients of the company are now able to enjoy this product in Mexico. On this, Mercado Pago Mexico’s CEO Pedro Rivas stated:
In order to promote greater technological inclusion, we are offering this service to millions of Mexicans. It is educational, secure, and easy to use.
Mercado Libre’s Latam Expansion
This was something that the company has hinted at before. Osvaldo Guimenez, the head of Mercado, spoke out on August 4 about a potential expansion, pointing to cryptocurrency’s importance as an investment alternative in Latam. This service was pioneered in Brazil by the company, which has more than 1,000,000 customers who have used it since November 2021.
Mercado Pago does not yet allow customers to buy merchandise from Mercado Libre with crypto. Marcos Galperin (co-founder, CEO, Mercado Libre) thinks crypto is valuable. He attributes more value to it’s function as a store and value, than its potential use as a payment method. In Mexico, the company announced its own token, mercadocoin on August 20, although it did not give any indications as to when that would happen.
There has been a steady rise in interest in crypto in Mexico. Other companies have also introduced cryptocurrency as a payment option as part of their business models. Rappi is a Mexican food delivery firm that announced it will be launching a pilot project to accept crypto as payment.
Indira Kempis (a Mexican senator) introduced a bill in July to make bitcoin a legal currency. This was done as an attempt to improve financial literacy and financial inclusion.
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