After raising funds, the site became the eighth largest unicorn in Latin America. It was valued at $ 2.1 billion.
The Latin America Foundation of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has invested $ 200 million in parent company Mercado Bitcoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South America.
Mercado Bitcoin is valued at $ 2.1 billion in a new round of fundraising, making it the eighth largest unicorn in the region.
Startups with an investment value of more than $ 1 billion are called unicorns.
In 2021, the client base of the Mercado Bitcoin crypto exchange grew to 2.8 million. In January-May, more than 700 thousand new users were registered on the site.
Since the beginning of 2021, the trading volume on Mercado Bitcoin has amounted to $ 5 billion, which exceeds the total volume over the last seven years of the site’s existence.
Mercado Bitcoin will use the funds to increase its scale, expand its offerings and invest in infrastructure to meet the soaring demand for crypto in the region.
The company has seen significant growth over the past year, with its client base reaching 2.8 million in 2021 –more than 70% of the entire individual investors base on Brazil’s stock exchange.
Between January and May 2021, approximately 700,000 new customers signed-up to use Mercado Bitcoin services. During the first five months of the year, Mercado Bitcoin also saw its trade volume increase to $5 billion USD, surpassing the total for its first seven years combined.
SoftBank is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo. The company owns stakes in many technology, energy and financial companies.
SoftBank also operates the Vision Fund, the world’s largest technology focused venture capital fund with over $ 100 billion in capital.
In 2020, the CEO of SoftBank, billionaire Masayoshi Son, speaking at the DealBook conference, talked about a $ 50 million loss from Bitcoin trading.
According to Son, he invested 1% of his personal assets, about $ 200 million, in the first cryptocurrency on the advice of a friend.