MercadoLibre Inc. will soon allow MercadoPago customers in Brazil to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in their digital wallets, according to a Bloomberg report Monday (Nov. 22).
The company is piloting the program with a small group of customers and will make it available to more people in the coming weeks, Tulio Oliveira, a MercadoPago vice president, said. From there, MercadoLibre will expand the offering to other Latin American markets.
“We took the time to study and learn before deciding to step into crypto,” Oliveira said. “This has a transformational potential ahead and opens up a new avenue for us.”
Customers won’t be able to use their digital coins to pay for goods on MercadoLibre for now.
Co-founder and CEO Marcos Galperin is optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies.
“Crypto is going to be a major development,” Galperin said in a Bloomberg interview earlier this year. “People are trying to retain value, and some of the cryptocurrencies will retain value by definition because they cannot be printed away or devalued.”
In May, MercadoLibre purchased $7.8 million in Bitcoin.
Related: Coinbase Launches New Tools to Drive Education in the Crypto Circle
Earlier this month, Coinbase announced it’s launching tools to help its cryptocurrency community learn more, share what they know, and be more involved with the effort.
The new solutions will enable users to share information with their private networks about their holdings by tapping the Share button in the Coinbase app. The Share button can be used on any asset or portfolio page.
Also Read: Deep Dive: Examining Latin America’s Payments Ecosystem and the PSP Opportunity
More than four out of five Latin American consumers (83%) are open to using more cutting-edge payment methods and technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, QR codes and biometric authentication-based transactions, according to a recent survey.
Almost three out of four consumers (72%), meanwhile, have tried a new form of payment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost three out of five (59%) prefer not to purchase from merchants that do not accept any electronic payments.
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