SÃO PAULO — July 1 — 2TM Group, the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency exchange in Latin America, today announced that Mercado Bitcoin has raised $200 million from the SoftBank Latin America Fund.
The fundraise represents the largest Series B round in Latin America’s history and SoftBank’s largest investment in a Latin America crypto company. The investment values 2TM Group at $2.1 billion, making it the eighth most valuable unicorn in Latin America.
Mercado Bitcoin will use the funds to increase its scale, expand its offerings and invest in infrastructure to meet the soaring demand for crypto in the region. The company has seen significant growth over the past year, with its client base reaching 2.8 million in 2021 – more than 70% of the entire individual investors base on Brazil’s stock exchange.
Between January and May 2021, approximately 700,000 new customers signed-up to use Mercado Bitcoin’s services. During the first five months of the year, Mercado Bitcoin also saw its trade volume increase to $5 billion USD, surpassing the total for its first seven years combined.
The new funding round will also enable Mercado Bitcoin to grow its team to 700 by the end of 2021, as well as accelerate growth across 2TM Group’s portfolio, which will also include digital wallet provider MeuBank, subject to regulatory approvals. In 2021, 2TM Group will also launch Bitrust, the first digital custodian in Latin America, subject to regulatory approval.
“Millions of people around the world are realizing that digital assets and cryptocurrencies are both innovative technologies and efficient stores of value – Brazil is no exception to that trend,” said Roberto Dagnoni, Executive Chairman & CEO of 2TM Group. “This series B round will afford us to continue investing in our infrastructure, enabling us to scale up and meet the soaring demand for the blockchain-based financial market. I am thrilled to have the SoftBank Latin America Fund support to help us to realize our vision, thanks to the unparalleled combination of their financial expertise, in-depth industry experience, and extensive regional footprint.”
With a track record of innovation and disruption in Latin America, in 2019, 2TM Group became the first company in the world to tokenize public debt assets. And, in 2020, the company issued Futecoin, the first digital asset in the world based on FIFA’s solidarity mechanism, and has also since tokenized or distributed private debt, carbon credits and a variety of utility and DeFi tokens. 2TM Group is also closely working with regulators to build a consistent framework for alternative digital investments in Brazil in line with its vision of a convergence of the traditional and blockchain-based financial markets.
The financing round comes just five months after Mercado Bitcoin’s Series A round in January 2021, which was co-led by G2D/GP Investments and Parallax Ventures, with participation from HS Investimentos, Gear Ventures, Évora and Genial.