Argentina’s Mercado Libre Invests $7.8mln in Bitcoin

Mercado Libre, Latin America’s biggest e-commerce platform, has informed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that is has invested $7.80 million in Bitcoin in 1Q21. In its SEC filing, the company has stated:

“As part of our treasury strategy this quarter we purchased $7.8 million in Bitcoin, a digital asset that we are disclosing within our indefinite-lived intangible assets.”

With the purchases, the Argentine firm has become the foremost big Latin American enterprise to invest in Bitcoin and hold in its Treasury. The firm also joins the elite groups of firms such as Tesla and MicroStrategy, which have earlier informed the market watchdog about their investments in Bitcoins.

Notably, a week before, top Japanese game creator Nexon revealed its purchase of 1,717 Bitcoins by investing about $100 million. Nexon aims to hold the Bitcoins in its balance sheet. Mercado Libre’s statement has turned it into the 36th largest publicly listed enterprise to invest and hold Bitcoin in balance sheet, as per Bitcoin Treasuries. Mercado Libre is traded on Nasdaq market under the ticker MELI.

Besides the official news announcement, the engagement with Bitcoin by popular eCommerce portal is not a distinct thing. By the end of last month, it paved way for the use of Bitcoin for their real estate business in Argentina.

Furthermore, Marcos Galperin, founder and ex-CEO of Mercado Libre, has already stated openly on multiple instances that he was in possession of Bitcoin in his personal portfolio since 2013, and has also uttered a range of bullish opinions with respect to the crypto ecosystem in Latin America. In fact, he has praised Bitcoin to be a better store of value than gold.