According to a report by Reuters which cited a press conference, Latin American e-commerce business Mercado Libre has introduced a crypto token called MercadoCoin to the Brazilian market. The token can be used to generate crypto cashback benefits on transactions and may also be used to pay for items on the Mercado Libre platform.
Marcos Galperin, the CEO and founder of Mercado Libre, said on his official Twitter account that this new effort will assist increase the company’s loyalty program and contribute to the democratization of financial inclusion in Latin American countries.
Mercado Libre anticipates that the cryptocurrency will be accessible to its 80 million customers in Brazil by the end of August. The company also said that it aims to release it in other countries shortly, but did not provide any other specifics regarding that.
According to the statement made by the firm, Mercado Coin will be available for trading on Mercado Pago, the firm’s digital wallet, at an initial price of 10 cents. However, this price is subject to change depending on market circumstances.
Osvaldo Gimenez, the Chief Executive Officer of Mercado Pago, has said in the past that the company plans to extend this service to the whole region, which would enable all customers to store, sell, or purchase cryptocurrencies without the need for banks, exchanges, brokers, or other third parties.
“We will be expanding in the Region the possibility to buy, sell and have cryptocurrencies in your account. It works with Bitcoin, Ethereum and stable currency that reflects the value of the dollar.”
The fact that Mercado Libre is working with cryptocurrencies is not a recent development; the company’s entry into the cryptocurrency market has been on the roadmap for quite some time. Mercado Libre made investments in the cryptocurrency companies Paxos and 2TM Group at the beginning of this year in order to expedite the growth of the cryptocurrency industry and its adoption in Latin America.
