Mercadolibre Inks Partnership With Mastercard to Secure Its Crypto Ecosystem in Brazil

Mercadolibre, one of the biggest “e-tailers” in Latam, has partnered with credit giant Mastercard to make use of its tech to secure the cryptocurrency ecosystem of the company. Through this partnership, Mercadolibre will be able to use Mastercard’s Ciphertrace technology, to allow the company to enhance the control and security of the crypto transactions in its trading ecosystem.

Mercadolibre, a leading e-tailer of Latam, has partnered with Mastercard, the credit tech company, to improve its due diligence when assessing risks in its cryptocurrency trading platform. The company, which introduced cryptocurrency trading through its own payment system, Mercado Pago, will use Mastercard’s technology to keep track of transactions on its trading services to prevent money laundering and other crimes from happening.

Mastercard’s technology, which comes from the acquisition of Ciphertrace, a blockchain auditing company, will allow Mercadolibre to monitor, identify, and assess risks while helping the retailer to comply with its regulatory obligations, according to a PR statement issued by the company.

On the importance of this partnership for the improvement of their products, Paula Arregui, Mercado Pago’s senior vice president and COO, stated:

In line with our purpose of democratizing trading and financial services, we want to break down more barriers and offer a simple and secure experience with crypto assets. Our alliance with Mastercard enhances financial education, user experience and transparency in the industry.

Brazil is one of the hottest cryptocurrency markets in Latin America, with adoption levels reaching high numbers, per Mastercard Brazil reports. Compliance and due diligence are becoming more and more important in Latam environments and in the country, where the government is focusing on getting a cryptocurrency bill passed later this year.

On the compliance issue, Ajay Bhalla, president of Cyber and Intelligence at Mastercard, stated:

The potential for cryptocurrencies to change our everyday experiences is huge, but every interaction and experience must be protected.

Mercadolibre has been investing in crypto since January, with the company announcing strategic investments in Paxos, a tokenization company, and in Mercado Bitcoin, a Latam-based cryptocurrency exchange, in January. Furthermore, the company purchased $7.8 million worth of bitcoin last April for its Treasury.

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