Latin America’s Mercado Libre Pulls the Plug on Its Crypto Coin – Decrypt

Latin America’s e-commerce big quietly killed its ERC-20 loyalty token 4 years in—whereas Nubank’s Nucoin already died the identical dying.

Mercado Libre is shutting down Mercado Coin. The corporate—which is larger than Amazon in Latin America—introduced by way of its Mercado Pago pockets that the token will cease performing on April 17.

Customers holding the coin have three choices: Promote it by way of the app, spend it as buy credit score on the platform, or do nothing and look forward to it to be auto-converted to native fiat. Mercado Libre did not clarify the choice in its buyer discover. The corporate didn’t reply to Decrypt‘s request for remark.

Mercado Coin launched in August 2022 in Brazil as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, constructed together with crypto change Ripio. The thought was easy: purchase chosen merchandise on {the marketplace}, earn tokens, use them on future purchases, or money out. It by no means actually caught on.

The token expanded to different markets after its Brazilian debut, nevertheless it by no means constructed a significant base. It lived and died as a curiosity—a loyalty factors system with additional steps and a dose of volatility.

That final half is probably going why Mercado Libre is not abandoning crypto altogether—it is simply altering what sort of crypto it bets on.

In August 2024, the corporate launched MeliDolar (MUSD), a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. greenback. It’s additionally constructed with Ripio, and likewise accessible by way of Mercado Pago. The important thing distinction is, after all, the worth of MeliDolar would not transfer. It is backed by U.S. Treasury securities and greenback deposits, and its worth sits precisely the place customers count on it to.

MeliDolar can be the spine of the corporate’s Meli Plus loyalty program. Members get it as cashback on purchases. They’ll spend it again on the platform, promote it within the app with no charges, or simply maintain it as a greenback hedge—a genuinely helpful function for Brazilian and Mexican shoppers watching their native currencies lose floor. This was the logical step after a quick experiment permitting customers to experiment with Paxos’ Stablecoin.

Mercado Libre is not alone in studying this lesson the onerous manner. Nubank—Brazil’s largest financial institution, a totally digital neobank with over 100 million prospects in Brazil alone—ran the identical experiment on the similar time. Nucoin launched in 2023 on Polygon, airdropped to its huge consumer base as a loyalty and rewards token.

It subsequently collapsed 97% in worth. Nubank suspended buying and selling in September 2024, gave holders 90 days to transform their cash to Bitcoin or USDC, and shut the entire thing down by December. Sixteen million customers had been left holding the bag, sweetened solely by a prize marketing campaign the financial institution ran to take the sting off.

Mercado Libre nonetheless holds greater than $38 million in Bitcoin on its steadiness sheet and continues to supply crypto buying and selling and stablecoin transfers by way of Mercado Pago. The infrastructure is staying—however not the coin no one was actually utilizing anyway.