MercadoPago, the fintech arm of e-commerce giant MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI), has enabled its Brazilian customers to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and the Paxos-issued U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin Pax Dollar (USDP). In a statement issued Thursday by U.S.-based Paxos, the blockchain infrastructure platform used by PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), the partnership between MercadoPago and Paxos will allow users to pay for all products sold on the platform using cryptocurrency.
This news signals one of the largest stablecoin operations within a non-crypto wallet to date. Brazilian users looking to hold U.S. dollars can now do so for as little as 1 Brazilian real within the MercadoPago app by purchasing USDP. In inflation-plagued Latin America, stablecoins can provide a safety net against fiat monetary debasement.