On April 28, MercadoLibre (MELI), the largest Latin American online marketplace, launched a real estate section dedicated to cryptocurrencies. Although the company does not settle property transactions directly, it legitimizes the category as a payment system. The $81 billion retailer is the second largest company in South America and is present in 18 countries, including its three largest markets, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. The group also owns Mercado Pago, a digital payments system for online and offline transactions, along with Mercado Envios, a logistics platform that provides fulfillment, warehousing, and shipping services. The current offers include houses, condos, vacant lots, …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and high-yielding decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have been the focus of attention in the cryptocurrency sector for the past few months. This intense focus on NFTs, DeFi and Bitcoin's (BTC) price action means that some investors have glossed over the fact that it was a series of positive developments in stablecoins that helped kick off the 2021 bull market. One project that has quietly amassed significant gains this year is Reserve Rights, a dual-token stablecoin platform where all the tokens are backed by a basket of smart contract-managed cryptocurrencies. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that …

Ricardo Salinas Pliego, chairman at conglomerate Grupo Salinas and Mexico’s second richest man, has revealed to Cointelegraph in an interview that he bought his first Bitcoin in 2013, when it was worth around $200. That, according to the billionaire, was his “best investment ever”. After holding it all the way until its 2017 highs, he sold all his positions at $17,000 and bought it again later at a cheaper price. “We always return to the scene of the crime”, he joked. Now Salinas holds around 10% of his liquid portfolio in BTC and doesn't plan to sell any of it …

Strategic investor Lyn Alden believes Bitcoin’s growing network effect coupled with favorable macroeconomic factors may bring its market capitalization to $1 trillion in the next few years. Back in 2017, Alden was skeptical toward Bitcoin (BTC), as the network effect of the main cryptocurrency was still relatively weak: “I was concerned with dilution. [...] So, if there isn’t one network effect that retains control, you could see that kind of market cap distributed among multiple different protocols.” Three years later, Bitcoin has not only retained its market dominance but also its network effect is set to grow further. In fact, …

Ravaged by crippling hyperinflation, Iran’s Parliament has sanctioned the redenomination of its fiat — the rial — by replacing it with a new currency called the toman. According to the plan, each toman will be worth 10,000 rials. The redenomination plan effectively removes four place values (four zeros) from the Iranian national currency as part of efforts to kickstart an economic recovery from the country. It is a move that echoes steps taken by other countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe amid huge inflation. With the United States exiting its nuclear deal with Iran and reintroducing sanctions, the country’s economic situation …

In a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Elon Musk bashed inflation — a problem that Bitcoin (BTC) fixes. Some of the current United States population sees the economy as an ever-flowing gift basket that will continue providing essentials even while the country is shut down from its regular workflow, Musk told Rogan on Thursday. "This notion though, that you can just sort of send checks out to everybody and things will be fine, is not true," Musk said referring to stimulus money the U.S. government sent to citizens. The government cannot logically sustain its money printing efforts In an …

Per a May 4 report from local outlet Mehr News, Iran’s new ‘Reforming Monetary and Banking Law’ has passed in parliament. The new law dictates the transition from rial to the toman — valued at 10,000 rials — within the next two years. Hyperinflation and the BTC connection in Iran Back in 2018, Iranian authorities set an official exchange rate at some 42,000 rial to the dollar. Many currency exchanges still show this as the going rate. At the same time, peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange LocalBitcoins is seeing prices of 1,445,658,900 rials per BTC — according to the official exchange rate, …

Colombian-based cross-border remittance start-up Valiu has launched Bitcoin-backed synthetic U.S. dollars as a means for Venezuelans to access stable assets and bypass the hyperinflation plaguing their national economy. It’s still in Alpha, but Valiu has partnered with Latin America food delivery app Rappi, which could offer a large user base to help with adoption when it’s rolled out in full later this year. Synthetic USD On April 23, Valiu chief executive Simon Chamorro tweeted that the firm’s ‘cryptodollar’ has launched in alpha: “After 4 months of 80+ hour work weeks, 500k+ lines of clean code written across 4 engineers, shifting …

What will a Greek or Spanish exit look like for the European Union and what will be its implications for the global economic picture? The popular media has all but guaranteed a compromise with Greece that would include a debt restructuring and a promise that the union will stay intact. But despite this guarantee, there is presently a stalemate between Syriza and the rest of the European Union that may preclude a possible deal and increase the chance of a Greek exit (Grexit). Even if an agreement is reached as promised, it could have a ripple effect on Spain, whose …