Bitcoin Magazine

Tether Invests $20 Million in Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin

Tether said Tuesday it will invest $20 million in a strategic growth financing round for Mercado Bitcoin, a move that deepens the stablecoin issuer’s push into Latin America’s fast-growing market for blockchain-based financial services.

Tether, the largest company in the digital asset industry and the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, framed the deal as part of a broader strategy of backing platforms that pair regulatory licensing with market scale. 

Mercado Bitcoin, founded in São Paulo in 2013, has grown from a cryptocurrency exchange into what it describes as a full-stack on-chain financial services platform.

The company now serves 4.5 million users and says it has issued more than 2 billion reais in tokenized assets. It holds more than 10 licenses across Brazil and Europe, including a payment institution license from Brazil’s central bank, along with broker-dealer, securitization and asset management capabilities. 

Its business spans trading, tokenized investment products, credit and lending, stablecoin-based payments, and cross-border services.

“Mercado Bitcoin has built exactly that, a regulated, full-stack on-chain financial platform serving millions of users across one of the world’s most dynamic financial markets,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a statement. He said the company’s mix of licensing, tokenization infrastructure and integrated services is unmatched in the region.

Roberto Dagnoni, chairman and chief executive of Mercado Bitcoin, said the shift of finance onto blockchain rails is underway and that the focus has turned to building infrastructure for tokenization, stablecoins, payments and capital markets at scale. He said the investment strengthens the company’s ability to expand its on-chain services in Brazil and abroad.

Mercado Bitcoin’s expanded infrastructure

Mercado Bitcoin said it will use the capital to expand its payments infrastructure, scale tokenized investment offerings for retail and institutional investors, grow its lending and credit business, advance on-chain capital markets, and continue international expansion.

The investment lands as banks and consumers move toward programmable, blockchain-based systems for moving and accessing money. 

Tether pointed to Brazil as a leader in that transition, citing the country’s large financial market, high digital adoption and developing regulatory framework. Brazil has drawn attention from crypto and payments firms in part because of Pix, the central bank’s instant-payment system, which has reshaped how money moves in the country.

The deal continues an active stretch of dealmaking for Tether, whose reserves back one of the world’s most widely used stablecoins. In June, the company said it would lead a Series C round of up to $1.4 billion for the German firm NEURA Robotics, one of the largest private raises on record in humanoid robotics.

It also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre to explore work on tokenization and blockchain education. The same month, Tether said it would wind down Alloy by Tether and its aUSDT token after reviewing user activity and market demand.

Neither company disclosed the size of the full financing round or the valuation attached to the investment. Tether described its role as that of a strategic partner and investor in Mercado Bitcoin’s next phase of growth.

The transaction reflects a wider bet across the industry that tokenization and stablecoins will move into mainstream finance, and that regulated platforms in high-growth markets are positioned to capture that demand. 

For Tether, backing Mercado Bitcoin extends its reach beyond issuing USDT and into the infrastructure that companies and consumers use to hold, invest and transfer digital value.

Source: BitcoinMagazine