Mercado Bitcoin, the largest digital asset platform in Latin America, announced an investment of US$20 million by Tether as the first closing of its Series C. The round also includes the company’s founders and SoftBank, which was already a shareholder since Mercado Bitcoin became a unicorn in 2021.
Founded in 2013 by Roberto Dagnoni, Gustavo Chamati, Mauricio Chamati and Rodrigo Batista, the platform has processed more than US$30 million in transactions. In addition, today it serves 4.5 million users. Its offering ranges from trading to tokenized products, credit, payments with stablecoins and banking services.
The investment comes at a time when financial services are moving towards blockchain-based infrastructure. At the same time, Brazil has established itself as the most mature crypto market in the region. The country has an active regulatory framework, high digital adoption and a growing demand for more efficient financial services. Likewise, Mercado Bitcoin operates with more than 10 licenses in Brazil and Europe. Among them stands out a Payment Institution license granted by the Central Bank of Brazil.
A platform that has already built the infrastructure of the future
The company will allocate the capital to expand its payments infrastructure. Additionally, it will scale its tokenized investment products for retail and institutional investors. It will also strengthen its credit operations and advance the development of on-chain capital markets.
Tokenization allows traditional assets, such as credit titles, to be transformed into tokens registered on the blockchain. Therefore, this technology occupies a central place in the company’s growth strategy.
“The discussion is no longer about whether or not financial services will migrate to on-chain infrastructures. This transition is already happening. Now, the focus is on building the infrastructure capable of supporting large-scale tokenization, stablecoins, payments and capital markets,” said Roberto Dagnoni, Founder and CEO of Mercado Bitcoin.
Brazil as a global laboratory for digital finance
For Tether, investing in the Bitcoin Market is part of a broader strategy. Specifically, it seeks to support regulated platforms that function as infrastructure for the mass adoption of stablecoins in emerging markets.
In countries with high inflation and volatile currencies, USDT has become an everyday tool for saving and transferring value. Furthermore, Latin America concentrates an important part of this use at a global level.
“Mercado Bitcoin has built precisely that: a regulated and integrated on-chain financial services platform that serves millions of users in one of the most dynamic financial markets in the world. Its licensing and tokenization infrastructure is unmatched in Latin America,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.
