‘Latin American eBay’ Announces Bitcoin Integration Plans

MercadoLibre, the e-commerce giant dubbed the 'eBay of Latin America', has announced that its payments platform, MercadoPago, is integrating Bitcoin payments.

The company mentioned in an email to users that in order to provide customers with more payment methods, the company will enable Bitcoin payment.

It’s unclear when the company will launch the bitcoin payment service, or in which countries (MercadoLibre offers services in 13 countries).

It is reported that the Bitcoin payment integration will be clever, and like any other transaction, merchants will be able to cash out from MercadoPago in the method of their choice.

Connection with eBay

Founded in 1999, MercadoLibre is the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America, with 120 million users and reported revenue of $556.5 million last year.

The company’s initial involvement with Bitcoin came in September last year, when its former head of research and development, Rodrigo Benzaquen, joined the board of directors of Uruguayan Bitcoin startup Moneero.

In addition, the company's largest investor is the e-commerce giant eBay. Back in 2001, eBay was already surprised by MercadoLibre's performance and bought more than 18% of MercadoLibre's shares.

eBay CEO John Donahoe has hinted several times over the past two years that eBay is interested in Bitcoin, but to his disappointment the company has not taken action.

PayPal, a former subsidiary of eBay, also began trialing Bitcoin payments through its Payments Hub last year.

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