Latin America's e-commerce giant quietly killed its ERC-20 loyalty token four years in—while Nubank's Nucoin already died the same death.
Mercado Libre is shutting down Mercado Coin. The company—which is bigger than Amazon in Latin America—announced through its Mercado Pago wallet that the token will stop functioning on April 17.
Users holding the coin have three options: Sell it through the app, spend it as purchase credit on the platform, or do nothing and wait for it to be auto-converted to local fiat. Mercado Libre didn't explain the decision in its customer notice. The company did not respond to Decrypt's request for comment.
The token expanded to other markets after its Brazilian debut, but it never built a meaningful base. It lived and died as a curiosity—a loyalty points system with extra steps and a dose of volatility.
That last part is likely why Mercado Libre isn't abandoning crypto altogether—it's just changing what kind of crypto it bets on.
It subsequently collapsed 97% in value. Nubank suspended trading in September 2024, gave holders 90 days to convert their coins to Bitcoin or USDC, and shut the whole thing down by December. Sixteen million users were left holding the bag, sweetened only by a prize campaign the bank ran to take the edge off.
Mercado Libre still holds more than $38 million in Bitcoin on its balance sheet and continues to offer crypto trading and stablecoin transfers through Mercado Pago. The infrastructure is staying—but not the coin nobody was really using anyway.
