Mercado Bitcoin aims to become a financial center by making blockchain invisible.

A New Transformation: Aiming to Become a Financial Super App

Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin is moving away from its trading-focused history and progressing towards becoming a "financial hub." The company aims to offer various financial services such as payments, digital fixed income, and money transfers. This new vision carries the goal of being a "super app" where Brazilians can manage their financial lives.

Mercado Bitcoin senior executive Daniel Cunha stated in an interview with CoinDesk that at the heart of this new strategy is the idea of providing services by blending traditional finance and blockchain without users needing to understand blockchain technology. Cunha emphasized, "The revolution happens when the protocol is lost," noting that users focus more on information such as interest rates, risk, and maturity dates.

Invisible Blockchain Approach

Mercado Bitcoin has shifted to using more familiar language by removing cryptocurrency terminology in its communication with users. Cunha reported that they observed the impact of entirely replacing the term "tokenization" with "digital fixed income."

The underlying idea of this strategy is to have blockchain technology operate in the background while allowing users to receive services without being aware of it. Cunha stated, "Invisible blockchain is the next frontier. Many people will be unaware that they are using blockchain."

Growth Strategy and Geographic Expansion

Mercado Bitcoin’s flagship investment products focus on tokenized private loans. This segment is considered an area that is under-served in Brazil. The company expects tokenized loan issuances to exceed 3 billion Brazilian Reais ($563 million) by the end of the year.

Currently, approximately 20% of the assets stored on the platform consist of tokenized real-world assets; this rate was nearly zero a few years ago. Additionally, Mercado Bitcoin is running a customer-centric operation in Portugal and establishing institutional channels in the United States.

While cryptocurrency trading still constitutes a large portion of Mercado Bitcoin's revenue, this balance is changing. Trading now provides about 60% of the company’s revenue, with expectations that this rate will drop below 30% in the future.