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MercadoLibre Launches new Crypto Services in Brazil

Crypto is being increasingly embraced as a viable payment option by a number of institutions around the world with the latest being MercadoLibre, a giant e-commerce platform, who recently announced that its users can now purchase products on its platform using BTC and other digital assets.

Brazilians Can Now Easily Purchase Crypto 

According to a press statement issued as regards the announcement, it was revealed that MercadoPago, the fintech arm of the company, has already enabled support for crypto payments for its users in Brazil. It continued that users would now be able to easily buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ethereum and the Paxos-issued US dollar-backed stablecoin USDP.

To achieve this, the e-commerce site partnered with Paxos, the popular blockchain infrastructure platform that is being used by PayPal too. It is widely believed that their partnership could easily “accelerate the democratization of financial services in Latin America.”

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The new development means Brazilians can now easily hedge against inflation by holding US Dollars via the MercadoPago app by purchasing the Paxos-backed stablecoin USDP. 

MercadoLibre and MercadoPago represents the single largest enablement of stablecoins within a non-crypto wallet to date. Any Brazilian user looking to hold US Dollars can now do so seamlessly within MercadoPago by getting USDP.

Earlier in the year, MercadoLibre announced the purchase of BTC worth around $7.8 million.

Institutions Democratizing Access to Crypto 

In previous years, access to Bitcoin and other crypto assets was elusive to many especially as the larger financial system had mischaracterized the space. But it all changed last year when PayPal, one of the leading financial tech companies in the world, opened up its platform to support the buying, selling and holding of crypto.

This single action opened up access to crypto to millions of individuals who, hitherto, were not exposed to the industry as the site also revealed that its user can also convert their digital assets into fiat and use it to buy goods from its merchants.

Another fintech firm worthy of mention in democratizing access to crypto is Square’s Cash App which is a peer-to-peer payment platform that allows users to buy and sell the flagship digital asset.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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