Overview
- Mercado Pago, which notified users Tuesday, will disable buying, selling, and cashback in Mercado Coin on April 17 and begin a managed wind-down.
- Holders can sell the token in-app, use it as purchase credits, or let Mercado Pago automatically convert remaining balances to local currency and deposit the funds.
- Mercado Coin launched in August 2022 in Brazil as an Ethereum-based ERC-20 rewards token run with exchange partner Ripio.
- Mercado Libre keeps other crypto services in place, including trading and stablecoin transfers, and it offers Meli Dolar (MUSD) for cashback and payments while holding more than $38 million in bitcoin.
- The rollback follows a broader pullback from branded reward tokens that struggled to gain traction, highlighted by Nubank’s Nucoin collapse in 2024.