Mercadolibre is one of the largest Latam-based unicorns. It has made strategic investments in Paxos Bitcoin and Mercado Bitcoin. The platform is now closer to cryptocurrency. It already invested in bitcoin directly for its Treasury and has the potential for users to invest in crypto in many Latam countries.
Mercadolibre Invests more in Crypto
Mercadolibre (one of the most popular ecommerce platforms in Latam with more than 70,000,000 customers) announced two strategic investments in exchange platforms. Latam-based unicorn Mercadolibre announced it acquired shares in 2TM (parent company of Mercado Bitcoin), one of Brazil’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges with over three million customers. Paxos is also an investment company in stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure provider.
The amounts invested in each of these companies were not provided, but the company informed that the objective of the investments was to “stimulate the regional ecosystem, allowing it to offer increasingly relevant products and services to Latin American entrepreneurs and users, who are at the heart of its strategy.”
Andre Chaves Senior Vice President Strategy and Corporate Development, Mercadolibre stated the following about this investment:
2TM and Paxos share this vision and our conviction to continue innovating to offer solutions which improve people’s lives, generate value and drive the development of our region. This is what we want: everyone should be able access the digital asset market easily and transparently.
Crypto Company
The company’s relationship with cryptocurrencies is not new. Mecadolibre has been a cryptocurrency-friendly company for quite some time. The investment in the company Paxos was preceded by a partnership established last year, that allowed some customers of the company to invest in cryptocurrencies directly in Mercadolibre’s platform through Mercadopago, in Brazil. This was the time when Paxos announced that they would expand their service to additional countries in the future.
The company also is the only one in Latam to have reported that it owned cryptocurrency as part its treasury. When it released its financial results for the quarter ended in 2021, it announced that it had purchased almost $8 million worth of bitcoin (BTC). But, it failed to provide customers with the ability to buy goods and services using cryptocurrencies. The company hasn’t yet announced when that functionality might become available.
What do you think about Mercadolibre’s investment in Paxos and MercadoBitcoin? Leave a comment below.
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