Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre discloses treasury bitcoin buy

Bitcoin • May 5, 2021, 4:29PM EDT
the block

MercadoLibre, the Latin American e-commerce and fintech company, said in a Wednesday regulatory filing that it now holds bitcoin on its balance sheet.

Per a press statement announcing its first-quarter results for 2021, the firm said that "[a]s part of our treasury strategy this quarter we purchased $7.8 million in bitcoin, a digital asset that we are disclosing within our indefinite-lived intangible assets."

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

The exact timing of the purchase is unclear, though the financial results cover the first quarter ending March 31, 2021.

By doing so, the firm becomes the latest publicly-traded company to add bitcoin to its balance sheet. Others include automaker Tesla and payments firm Square.

MercadoLibre, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker MEDI, has a market capitalization of more than $76 billion.