We often focus on crypto within the states as that is where the media attention always is but we need to remember there is a vast world out there and there are many opportunities around the world to adopt crypto. Many of these countries are even needier for a radical change in how they deal with their finances than the United States of America is.
Recently attention has gone towards both India and China and even El Salvador after their president announced that they will use Bitcoin as legal tender. However, it looks like the hunger for crypto in countries such as Brazil is also strong. Without getting too political, we can clearly state that political tension in many countries throughout South America is high. This can lead to a severe distrust in the government and use Brazil as an example their economy has plummeted.
This can be largely attributed to the fact that their president has some very alternative views about how they should deal with this current pandemic. Venezuela should in theory be a poster child to why crypto is needed around the world. The value of their currency is on the floor and anyone who had locked up money in the traditional way with banks found themselves to be in real trouble when the chaos started to spread throughout the country.
Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado has obtained 200 million USD in Series B investment from SoftBank. This marks one of the most significant funding rounds in the nation’s history.
The cryptocurrency exchange announced on Thursday that it will utilize the funding to widen its offerings as well as fund a new foundation to fulfill the increasing demand for virtual assets within the region. 2TM, Mercado Bitcoin’s holding company is, as of now, evaluated to be worth 2.1 billion USD. This makes it the eighth-greatest unicorn or private start-up on the continent.
The term “unicorn” is used to describe private start-ups having a value of a minimum of 1 billion USD. The crypto may be the second cryptocurrency exchange based in Latin America to become a part of the elite unicorn classification. As reported by Cointelegraph, Bitso, a Mexican crypto exchange, was worth 2.2 billion USD in May after closing a Series C campaign worth 250 million USD.
Similar to other crypto exchanges, the Mercado Bitcoin has recorded an exponential amount of growth this year. Approximately 700K users have set up accounts to use the platform this year, and this has brought its total user base to a total of 2.8 billion. That accounts for more than 70 percent of stakeholders on the Brazilian stock market. According to Robert Dagnoni, chief and executive chairman of 2TM, in 2017, by comparison, the platform only had 900K users.
Trading also increased amidst the peak of the bull market, during which Bitcoin volumes hit 5 billion USD between the months of January and May, as a result, exceeding the platform’s total for the initial 7 years combined. As per Dagnoni’s observations, trade volumes had gone up by 11 times, when compared with annual levels.
