Mercado Libre, Circle expand into Chile with USDC

Latin American digital payment platform Mercado Pago is now offering USDC payments for customers in Chile, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire announced Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.

Allaire called Mercado Libre, the e-commerce firm that runs Mercado Pago, the Amazon of Latin America. 

In a more detailed blog post, senior director of Mercado Pago Matías Spagui lauded this integration as a way for millions of people in Chile to access its stablecoin.

“With the launch of this stablecoin we seek to diversify access to cryptocurrencies and offer the more than two million Mercado Pago users an alternative that matches the value of the dollar,” Spagui said in a statement.

Allaire mentioned that this move into Chile essentially capitalizes on what the company already knows about its customers and the stablecoin business in general.

The majority of stablecoin activity — specifically USDC transactions — happens outside the US, where the US dollar makes up for around 96% of trade invoicing, according to the Federal Reserve.

“We recently shared that ~70% of USDC adoption was non-US, and a lot of that is driven by emerging markets. Latin American [fintechs] will be a major driving force in the adoption of digital dollars,” Allaire posted on X. 

Mercado Libre, the firm Circle is partnering with to get more widespread USDC access to Chilean citizens, hasn’t been shy in the crypto space. 

The company launched Ethereum-based token MercadoCoin in Brazil last August as an alternate means to earn cashback on purchases made through its e-commerce platform.

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