The company currently serves around 2.2 million traders in Brazil. The exchange trades about USD 2 million worth of Bitcoin daily.
In recent days, the Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin announced that it plans to expand into the markets of Chile, Mexico, and Argentina. They could start operating in those countries this year after attracting investments of about USD 37 million.
The exchange noted that the regulatory culture in Brazil and these three other countries is practically the same. For that reason, they say that it is only a matter of time before they start their activities. They seek to develop a local ecosystem like that of the United States, according to Reinaldo Rabelo, the company’s CEO.
“To achieve this, we must be among the five largest digital exchanges in the world. Currently, we are the largest stock exchange in Latin America, but we operate almost exclusively in Brazil. From now on, we will take into account markets such as Chile, Mexico, and Argentina,” added Rabelo.
Plans of Expansion into Other Countries
Mercado Bitcoin included the project of internationalization in its work agenda a few years ago. They have always concentrated their operations mainly in the Brazilian market, but the new round of investments has increased their aspirations.
There are 2.2 million traders that receive support from this Brazilian exchange. After the expansion, the company estimates that it will be able to serve around 3 million traders. In 2020, they reached a total trading volume of BRL 6,400 million (equivalent to around USD 1,170 million).
According to figures from CoinMarketCap, they mainly trade two pairs. The ETH/BRL pair represents a daily trading volume of USD 2.5 million. The BTC/BRL one represents another USD 2 million every 24 hours.
Growth and New Bitcoin-Related Products
The rise of Bitcoin worldwide has boosted the trading on the exchange during January. The company said that it reached more than 50% of the total trading volume of last year.
The companies and funds that participated in the investment round mainly include the following: GP Investimentos, Parallax Ventures, Évora Fund (Zé Bonchristiano), HS Investimentos Private Investment Fund (FIP), Banco Plural, and Gear Ventures.
The company has faced difficulties as some banks have closed their accounts, which they consider anti-competitive conduct. This situation has affected the exchange due to the restriction of their operations. Some cryptocurrencies that people can trade on their platform include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Chainlink, Litecoin, XRP, and USD Coin.
Other Exchanges Have Expanded into Latin America
In 2021, San Francisco-based platform Coinbase announced the expansion of its service into 11 other countries. The firm indicated that users in countries such as Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Chile could access their cryptocurrency exchange services.
The previous year, P2P platform Binance expanded its cryptocurrency trading market into Latin America. Users in Latin America could directly buy and sell BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, and BUSD with Latin American fiat currencies.
Mexican exchange Bitso recently announced that it will also expand into the region. The company raised USD 62 million for new operations, but they did not provide details on the markets that they are evaluating.
By Alexander Salazar
