Mercado Libre, one of Latam’s largest retailers, has announced plans to expand its cryptocurrency transaction services to more countries in the region. The company is currently in the process of offering cryptocurrency services to its Brazilian customers through its payment and digital wallet, Mercado Pago, and already has over one million customers using these services.
Mercado Libre expands its cryptocurrency services in Latam
More and more companies are expanding their services to include cryptocurrency in Latam. Mercado Libre, one of the largest retailers in the Latam area, has plans to expand its cryptocurrency services to include more countries in the region.Osvaldo Osvaldo, head of Mercado Pago, Mercado Libre’s digital payment and wallet service Gimenez, informed El Paisabout these plans. He declared that.
we intend to expand the possibilities to buy, sell and have cryptocurrencies in our accounts in the region. It will be linked to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stable currencies that reflect the value of the dollar.
The company, which first launched these services in Brazil, successfully enrolled one million customers in these alternative investment options in the first two months of implementation. The service uses USDP, a stablecoin backed by Paxos, a New York-based financial services company, as its only dollar-pegged stablecoin.
However, Giménez did not specify a timeline for the announced expansion or which countries would be included in this expansion phase.
Importance of Crypto
Because of the current state of the local economy, many latam countries, like Argentina, suffering from high inflation and devaluation, are turning to crypto and stablecoins as a way to maintain purchasing power Gimenez has been using the spoke about the importance of these instruments in the platform offered by Mercado Pago. He stated.
This is an alternative investment opportunity that we find very interesting and we are getting a lot of interest from our users. With the dollar appreciating, the investments that users are making with us are small, and it is another way for us to diversify our portfolio.
Mercado Libre faces competition from a series of companies that have extended their services to offer crypto transactions to customers in other countries in Latam, including Argentina and Mexico. Nubank, a digital bank platform, also introduced a crypto trading solution in May, expanding its offerings to all of Latam’s estimated 54 million customers. Traditional banks are also starting to get into crypto services, as Santander recently reported that it has plans to offer this type of investment to its Brazilian customers.
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