Mercado Libre is the largest e-commerce company in Brazil, and now they have decided to allow users in Brazil to buy or sell cryptocurrencies through their platform. Bloomberg Law broke the news first, and later CEO of Mercado Libre confirmed it via a retweet. According to reports, a ‘world-class’ custodian will partner Mercado Libre in their recent project, but the name for the custodian has not yet been disclosed.
Mercado Libre has had its eyes on Brazil’s crypto market for a long time. President of Mercado Osvaldo Gimenez hinted at the possibility of the business entering cryptocurrency markets back in August. At that time, he said that cryptocurrencies have immense potential to transform the financial landscape of Brazil. With Gimenez’s vision finally coming to fruition, Brazil will go through significant changes over the next few months.
Mercado’s entry into the crypto space is representative of the growing trend from corporates to participate in the crypto race. All businesses now want to be a part of the cryptocurrency wave and reap the benefits of it. With Mercado’s entry into Brazil’s crypto market, many other e-commerce giants will also be speculating a similar move. We might also see the e-commerce behemoth of the world – Amazon – enter the crypto space in the future. With involvement from top business houses, the crypto market can grow tremendously over the next few years. However, how these businesses will navigate through the regulatory problems and how much they can influence the same remains under question.
