E-Commerce Giant Mercadolibre Buys Bitcoins Worth $7.8 Million for Treasury

Mercadolibre Inc., Latin America’s leading e-commerce company with almost 70 million users on its marketplace, has bought bitcoins worth almost $8 million for its treasury. With this move, the company has joined a growing list of corporations with the cryptocurrency on their balance sheets.

Mercadolibre Holds Bitcoin on Balance Sheet

Mercadolibre Inc. reported its first-quarter financial results Wednesday declaring that the company is holding bitcoin on its balance sheet.

An Argentine company incorporated in the U.S. that operates online marketplaces dedicated to e-commerce and auctions, Mercadolibre is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol MELI. As of Wednesday, its market cap was $76.3 billion.

The company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) states:

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.

Last week, the Latin American e-commerce giant announced that its customers could buy real estate with bitcoin.

In its Q1 earnings report, Mercadolibre revealed that its net revenues for the first quarter were $1.4 billion, a year-over-year increase of 111.4% in USD and 158.4% on an FX neutral basis. However, overall its net loss was $34 million. As a company operating out of Argentina, Mercadolibre also incurred foreign currency losses worth $15.1 million.

The company says its unique active users grew by 61.6% year-over-year, reaching 69.8 million. Its gross merchandise volume grew to $6.1 billion and successful items sold reached 222 million. In addition, live listings offered on Mercadolibre’s marketplace reached 299.5 million.

With this bitcoin buy, the e-commerce giant joins a growing list of companies that have chosen to add BTC to their balance sheets, including Elon Musk’s Tesla, Jack Dorsey’s Square, and Microstrategy.