Latin America’s Mercado Libre Pulls the Plug on Its Crypto Coin
Mercado Libre, Latin America’s largest e-commerce company, is discontinuing its ERC-20 loyalty token Mercado Coin, which will stop functioning on April 17. Users can sell, spend, or have their tokens converted to local fiat. Launched in Brazil in August 2022 and later expanded, Mercado Coin failed to gain traction, functioning as a volatile loyalty point system. The company gave no official reason for the shutdown. Mercado Libre has since shifted focus to stablecoins, introducing MeliDolar (MUSD) in August 2024, a dollar-pegged stablecoin used in its loyalty program and backed by U.S. Treasuries and dollar deposits. This stable value is considered more practical for users facing volatile local currencies. Similarly, Nubank’s Nucoin, also a loyalty token, collapsed 97% in value and was discontinued in December 2024 after customers were given a conversion window. Both companies have maintained crypto services such as trading and stablecoin transfers, but abandoned volatile rewards tokens due to lack of user adoption and price instability.
