Latin American eCommerce giant MercadoLibre has launched a cryptocurrency known as MercadoCoin, which it will roll out in Brazil in connection with its loyalty program.
According to Reuters, the company announced the launch at a news conference Thursday (Aug. 18), saying clients can earn MercadoCoins as cashback when purchasing products on its eCommerce platform.
From there, they can use the digital currency — which uses Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard — to make new purchases or trade it on the company’s financial services arm MercadoPago. Reuters said MercadoLibre’s cryptocurrency will be initially valued at $0.10 apiece, prior to being open to market fluctuation.
It is now available for 500,000 users in Brazil with a wider rollout to the company’s 80 million-strong customer base expected by the end of the month.
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