Mercado Bitcoin

Mercado Bitcoin is Latin America's largest digital asset investment platform, giving Brazilian retail and institutional investors access to more than 330 cryptocurrencies — including SOL — through a fully regulated, BRL-denominated venue that doubles as a payment institution, fixed-income issuer, and tokenization platform.

Background and History

Founded in January 2013 by Gustavo Chamati, Rodrigo Batista, and Mauricio Chamati, Mercado Bitcoin is Brazil's oldest cryptocurrency exchange and one of the earliest regulated crypto venues in all of Latin America. Over more than a decade of operation the company has processed more than $50 billion in cumulative trading volume and grown its user base to 4.5 million registered accounts.

The platform is owned and operated under the 2TM Group, a digital finance holding company that also controls Bitrust and Meubank. Current leadership is headed by CEO Reinaldo Rabelo, with Roberto Dagnoni as Executive Chairman, Rafael Gevaerd da Cruz as COO, and Ivan Perez as CTO.

Core Platform and Mechanism

Mercado Bitcoin operates as a centralized exchange (CEX) with Brazilian Real (BRL) as the primary fiat currency. Users deposit and withdraw via PIX (Brazil's instant payment rail), TED, or DOC bank transfers at no additional cost. All trading pairs are denominated in BRL, which sets the platform apart from globally-oriented exchanges that rely on USD or USDT as the base.

The exchange supports both quick-buy (a one-click purchase flow for beginners) and full spot trading with limit and market orders. A tiered fee schedule runs from 0.30% maker / 0.70% taker for standard accounts down to 0.015% maker / 0.25% taker for high-volume traders. An API is available for algorithmic and automated strategies.

Features and Products

Beyond simple buy-and-sell, Mercado Bitcoin has built a layered product stack that spans several segments of the crypto market:

Staking. The platform offers on-platform staking for multiple proof-of-stake networks. Solana staking is available at 4.45% APY with rewards distributed every three days, giving Brazilian SOL holders a regulated, custodial option to earn yield without managing a wallet or validator themselves.

Fixed-income and variable-income products. Mercado Bitcoin issues crypto-native fixed-income instruments through its tokenization infrastructure, giving retail investors BRL-denominated yield products backed by digital assets. These complement standard savings and DeFi-style variable-rate instruments available on the platform.

NFT marketplace. The platform hosts a native NFT marketplace, allowing users to mint, list, and trade non-fungible tokens within the same account environment used for spot trading.

Crypto-backed credit. Users can pledge digital asset holdings as collateral to access BRL-denominated credit lines, unlocking liquidity without selling positions.

MB Pay. Operating under its Central Bank payment institution license, Mercado Bitcoin issues a prepaid Mastercard tied to users' digital accounts, enabling spending of crypto-derived balances and instant Pix payments in everyday commerce.

Supported Assets

Mercado Bitcoin lists more than 330 digital assets with BRL trading pairs, covering Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, and a broad catalog of DeFi tokens, utility tokens, fan tokens, and stablecoins. The platform also supports tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), having already issued more than R$2 billion in tokenized financial instruments including private credit and fixed-income securities. In July 2025 the company announced a $200 million RWA tokenization program on the XRP Ledger, one of the largest such initiatives by a Latin American institution.

Regulation and Security

Mercado Bitcoin holds more than ten active licenses across Brazil and Europe — an unusually broad regulatory footprint for a crypto exchange. The most significant is the payment institution license granted by Brazil's Central Bank in June 2023, making Mercado Bitcoin the first cryptocurrency platform in Latin America to achieve this status. It operates as a regulated electronic money issuer under both the Central Bank of Brazil and the CVM (Brazil's securities regulator). Financial statements are audited annually by Ernst & Young.

Security practices include mandatory two-factor authentication for all withdrawals, SSL encryption, continuous cybersecurity monitoring, and strict segregation of user funds from operational treasury. The platform has operated for more than twelve years without a significant security breach, a track record uncommon among exchanges of its scale.

In 2022, Brazil's CVM opened an inquiry into Mercado Bitcoin over token issuance practices. The investigation concerned the classification of certain tokens as securities. The company engaged with regulators through that process, and its subsequent licensing and audit arrangements reflect the outcome of sustained regulatory dialogue.

Solana on Mercado Bitcoin

Solana occupies a meaningful position in Mercado Bitcoin's ecosystem. SOL trades with a direct BRL pair, providing Brazilian investors a regulated fiat on-ramp without the need to first acquire a USD-based stablecoin. On-platform SOL staking at 4.45% APY makes the asset accessible to yield-seeking retail users who prefer regulated custody over self-custodied validator staking.

Looking ahead, Mercado Bitcoin's January 2026 market outlook identified Solana as one of the two dominant assets — alongside XRP — expected to capture roughly 80% of inflows into altcoin ETFs as that product category grows toward $10 billion in AUM by end of 2026. The company's institutional perspective treats SOL as a top-tier liquid asset and a significant driver of the next wave of regulated crypto product adoption in Brazil and Latin America.

Recent Developments

In July 2026, Tether committed $20 million in a strategic financing round to accelerate Mercado Bitcoin's expansion across payments, tokenized investment products, lending, and on-chain capital markets. The investment underscores the platform's positioning as a regulated, multi-product on-chain financial services company rather than a pure-play spot exchange, and signals its planned international growth beyond Brazil's existing user base.