Mercado Pago Extends Its Cryptocurrency Services in Brazil

Mercado Pago, the digital payments company related to Mercadolibre, has recently announced the extension of the crypto services that it provides to users in Brazil. The company revealed it will now allow customers to deposit their own cryptocurrencies through third-party services and wallets into their cryptocurrency digital wallet with no cost associated.

Mercado Pago to Allow Deposits From Third Party Services

Mercado Pago, the payment processing service of Mercadolibre, one of the biggest e-tailers in Latam, has announced it will be expanding the array of crypto-related services for Brazilian customers launched back in November. The company reported that it will open its platform for customers to receive deposits in crypto coming from third-party services, including other exchanges and other digital wallets.

In a statement sent to Portal do Bitcoin, Mercado Pago stated:

From today, it will be possible to receive Bitcoin, Ethereum and Pax Dollar from other digital wallets through the Mercado Pago app. Last week, transfers within the app itself also started to be enabled.

This increases the functionality of Mercado Pago’s trading services, which before behaved as a closed ecosystem, with users only being able to purchase and sell crypto from within the app. Other companies like Nubank, which uses Paxos as a crypto services partner, also operate in the same way.

The functionality of adding transfers between crypto accounts inside of Mercado Pago’s platform was also requested by customers, who can now move crypto without having to exchange it for Brazilian fiat currency.

Withdrawals Still Not Available

While the company started offering cryptocurrency services back in November, it has yet to open the system to allow withdrawals from the platform to other exchanges and wallets. About the issue of withdrawals, Osvaldo Gimenez, president of fintech at Mercado Pago, declared in December that:

It’s just a matter of time before allowing withdrawals, we’ll then allow transfers between wallets. But the priority was to give access to investment in cryptocurrencies.

However, six months after that statement was made, there is still no way of transferring any of the cryptocurrencies available away from Mercado Pago’s platform. The company did not offer a time frame in which this service would be made available.

Mercadolibre recently partnered with Mastercard to use its services to secure the transactions and lower the risks involved in transacting on the exchange platform. The company announced it would leverage Mastercard’s capabilities to avoid money laundering and other related crimes on the platform.