Tether injects $20 million into Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin

Founded in São Paulo in 2013, Mercado Bitcoin has pivoted from a standard exchange into a comprehensive on-chain financial services provider. The firm currently manages over 2 billion Brazilian reais in tokenized assets and maintains more than 10 regulatory licenses, including a payment institution authorization from the Central Bank of Brazil. The new capital will bolster the platform’s payments infrastructure and expand its credit operations for both retail and institutional clients.

Tether Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino highlighted the platform’s ability to combine regulatory compliance with large-scale infrastructure as a primary driver for the deal. Mercado Bitcoin chairman Roberto Dagnoni emphasized that the funding will fuel growth in international markets, capitalizing on Brazil's high digital adoption rates and the success of the country’s Pix instant payment network. While the companies withheld details regarding the total size of the financing round, the move follows Tether’s recent aggressive diversification, including a $1.4 billion funding commitment to NEURA Robotics and forthcoming plans to bring native USDT back to the Bitcoin network via the RGB protocol.