Mercado Libre, the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America, announced to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) that it acquired $7.8 million in bitcoin during the first quarter of 2021.
Last week, major Japanese game developer Nexon announced that it had bought 1,717 BTC for its balance sheet for about $100 million. Mercado Libre's announcement makes it the 36th publicly traded company to hold Bitcoin according to Bitcoin Treasuries . Mercado Libre is listed on Nasdaq as MELI.
Beyond the formal announcement, the popular eCommerce site's relationship with Bitcoin is not new. In late April, it enabled the use of Bitcoin in their real estate verticals in the Argentine market.
In addition, Marcos Galperín, founder and former CEO of Mercado Libre, has already publicly announced several times that he owns Bitcoin in his personal wallet since 2013, And he has expressed many positive opinions regarding the cryptocurrency ecosystem in Latin America, even stating that he saw Bitcoin as a better means of storing value than gold.
