Coinbase should buy Brazilian exchange Mercado BTC

Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world and the largest in the United States, is expected to acquire Grupo 2TM, owner of the Brazilian cryptocurrency platform Mercado BTC.

Coinbase wants to enter the Brazilian market

According to a report by Estadão published last Sunday (27), the acquisition has been negotiated since 2021. The official announcement should take place by the end of next month.

The purchase is part of Coinbase’s global expansion strategy that includes expanding its share of the Latin American market.

Last year, as reported by Cryptheory, Coinbase went public on the US stock exchange Nasdaq, having moved US$ 86 billion.

In Brazil, Coinbase will compete with Binance, the largest global exchange by traded volume. Currently, Binance is most used by Brazilians to trade BTC, according to Cointrader Monitor.

Despite being criticized by national exchanges for not following the rules of Brazil, Binance has already made it clear that it intends to open an office in the country. In addition, in March, the broker guaranteed that intends to act in “full compliance” with Brazilian law.

Also last month Coinbase had already made clear its plans to enter Brazil. At the time, the exchange announced the creation of a technological talent hub in Latin America and Brazil was the country chosen to house the new talent center.

About 130 new job openings were announced on the exchange’s website as part of the initiative. Most of the vacancies were for remote work. Meanwhile, some were for jobs in Brazil, for example, positions as software engineer and business manager.

Coinbase Brasil’s hub leader is Marcello Azambuja, Director of Engineering and Technology. He was Global Director of Engineering at Uber before joining the exchange.

“Brazil is an important technology hub for Coinbase’s global expansion. That’s why we need a global engineering team that reflects our goal of increasing economic freedom around the world,” Azambuja said at the time of the announcement.

Founded in 2012, based in San Francisco, California, Coinbase is led by Brian Armstrong and its largest shareholders are manager Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global and cryptocurrency-focused company Paradigm.

2TM Group

The 2TM group, in turn, has received in July a contribution of US$ 200 million in an investment round led by Softbank. The contribution raised the valuation of Grupo 2TM to US$ 2.1 billion.

In January of this year, Mercado Livre announced the acquisition of part of 2TM. In the same month, the group acquired controlling interest in cryptocurrency exchange CriptoLoja, based in Lisbon, Portugal.

Another national exchange to attract the attention of international brokerages was Foxbit. In February, the exchange received an investment from OK Group, which controls exchange OKX. The investment was made during a series A round.