E-Commerce Giant Mercado Libre Adds Bitcoin to Balance Sheet

Argentine e-commerce corporation Mercado Libre has bought $7.8 million worth of bitcoin, as revealed in the firm's Q1 earnings results.

Mercado Libre is Latin America's most popular e-commerce platform, counting more than 170 million users in 2016. The decision to buy bitcoin was made in the previous quarter, as part of the firm's treasury strategy.

Although the purchase is dwarfed by Mercado Libre's total assets of over $3.9 billion, it adds another name to the list of publicly-traded bitcoin HODLers.

The firm's payment platform added Bitcoin support in 2015, and last month, Mercado Libre launched a Bitcoin-only real estate platform.