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The largest e-commerce platform in Latin America, Mercado Libre, will discontinue the issuance of the Mercado Coin token, which was launched nearly four years ago as part of a customer loyalty program. The token is set to cease operations on April 17.
Owners of Mercado Coin have been presented with three options: sell their tokens via the app, use them for purchases on the platform, or simply hold onto the tokens and await automatic conversion into the local fiat currency. The reasons for the discontinuation of the token have not been disclosed by Mercado Libre.
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Mercado Coin was introduced in August 2022 as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. The token was developed in collaboration with the cryptocurrency exchange Ripio. The concept behind Mercado Coin was to allow customers to purchase selected items on the marketplace, earn loyalty tokens in the process, and then either spend them on new purchases or cash them out. Following its launch in Brazil, the token expanded to other markets but failed to gain a substantial user base.
In August 2024, Mercado Libre launched the dollar-backed stablecoin Meli Dolar (MUSD), which was also created in partnership with Ripio and is accessible to customers through the Mercado Pago wallet. The Meli Dolar stablecoin was introduced as part of the Meli Plus loyalty program: participants receive tokens as cashback for purchases, which they can use on the platform, sell without fees in the app, or simply hold as a safeguard against the devaluation of local currencies, a concern particularly relevant for users in Brazil and Mexico.
In 2023, Brazilian Nubank, one of the largest digital banks with over 100 million clients in Brazil alone, conducted a similar experiment. The bank announced the launch of the loyalty token Nucoin with support from the Polygon blockchain platform. However, in September 2024, Nubank halted trading of the token, offering asset holders a 90-day window to convert it into Bitcoin or USDC stablecoins.
