2026

Bitcoin

BlackRock

Tether announced earlier today, July 7, that it will put $20 million into a growth financing round for Mercado Bitcoin, a Brazilian firm.&nbsp;
The company began as an exchange in 2013, and then grew into a regulated on-chain finance platform serving 4.5 million users across Latin America.
<h3 id="span-why-is-tether-investing-in-a-brazilian-firm-span">Why is Tether investing in a Brazilian firm?</h3>
Tether recently invested $20 million into a funding round for Mercado Bitcoin. According to <a href="https://tether.io/news/tether-to-invest-20-million-in-strategic-financing-round-for-mercado-bitcoin-to-accelerate-onchain-financial-infrastructure-in-latin-america/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Tether’s announcement</a>, the money will help Mercado Bitcoin expand its operations further into payments, credit, tokenized investments, and on-chain capital markets.
Mercado Bitcoin holds more than 10 licenses across Brazil and Europe, including a Payment Institution license from Brazil’s central bank, the Banco Central do Brasil. It runs broker-dealer operations, a securitization arm, and an asset management business. The firm has reportedly issued over 2 billion reais in tokenized assets.
Tether has been investing in firms that are not only licensed but also have a wide reach, like Mercado Bitcoin. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the announcement that the company’s depth of licensing and tokenization infrastructure was “unmatched in Latin America.”
<h3 id="span-tether-s-pattern-of-distribution-deals-span">Tether’s pattern of distribution deals</h3>
So far in 2026, Tether has <a href="https://www.cryptopolitan.com/tether-expands-control-of-twenty-one-capital/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">repeatedly backed companies</a> that can put USDT in front of users who are not crypto natives.&nbsp;
In April, the company led an $8 million round for Abu Dhabi tokenization firm KAIO. The firm packages funds from managers like BlackRock and Hamilton Lane onto blockchain rails and had raised $19 million in total.&nbsp;
Cryptopolitan <a href="https://www.cryptopolitan.com/tether-lemfi-cross-border-payments/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">reported</a> in May that Tether invested an undisclosed sum in the cross-border payments app LemFi to include USDT as a settlement layer for transfers into Africa and Asia.
Tether <a href="https://www.cryptopolitan.com/tether-1-billion-in-profits-from-gold-in-q1/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">reported</a> about $1.04 billion in net profit for the first quarter of 2026 and excess reserves of $8.23 billion as of March 31, according to its attestation covered by Cryptopolitan. Its direct and indirect exposure to U.S. Treasury bills reached roughly $141 billion, ranking it the 17th largest holder of US government debt worldwide. The company’s stablecoin liquidity is currently at roughly $185 billion
Neither company gave a timeline nor a valuation for Mercado Bitcoin.
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Tether invests $20 million in Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin

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