Mercado Libre, the Latin American ecommerce giant, has launched the MELI dollar stablecoin in Brazil via its digital bank, Mercado Pago. The parent company is the Latin American equivalent of Amazon.com and has the highest market capitalization of any company in the region.
It’s a big deal because the digital bank has 52 million monthly active users across the entire region. While the company doesn’t break out the users by country, its financial report for Q2 2024 said the digital bank users in Brazil had grown 46% year on year.
Users can access the stablecoin via the Mercado Pago app, which also supports cryptocurrencies. The company is currently waving stablecoin transaction fees, whereas other crypto attracts fees of 1.5%. It partnered with crypto firm Ripio, which is providing market making.
Ripio is also a distributor of the Lift stablecoin, a yield bearing dollar token targeted at Argentinians. Paxos issued it out of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
Meanwhile, the MELI stablecoin is issued by Meli Uruguay. Mercado Libre’s headquarters were originally in Argentina but moved to Uruguay, and its holding company is registered in Delaware.
The company has been interested in stablecoins for some time as it was a member of the Facebook-founded Diem stablecoin initiative.
In 2022 Mercado Libre launched the MercadoCoin as part of a loyalty program that started in Brazil.
