Mercado Bitcoin
“Can a crypto exchange become Brazil's mainstream financial super-app by hiding blockchain rails behind familiar products (banking, credit, fixed income, cross-border)?”
Founded 2013 as Brazil's first Bitcoin exchange by the Chamati brothers. Hit unicorn status in 2021 on the back of a $200M SoftBank-led Series B. Since 2024-2025, deliberately repositioning away from a pure trading venue toward a 'financial super app' — adding tokenized fixed-income (Renda Fixa Digital), digital banking accounts, PIX rails, crypto-collateralized lending (CriptoCrédito / MB Pay), Ripple-powered cross-border payments and a CVM-licensed broker via the Banco Mercantil CCTVM acquisition. The thesis is 'invisible blockchain' — use crypto rails behind the scenes while shipping mainstream financial products to 4M+ Brazilian retail customers.