MercadoLibre to create cryptocurrency as part of loyalty program

South American ecommerce giant MercadoLibre Inc on Thursday announced the creation of a new cryptocurrency called MercadoCoin, which will be implemented as part of its loyalty program.

MercadoLibre told a news conference clients will earn MercadoCoins as cashback when buying products on the ecommerce platform.

They will then be able to use the digital currency, which follows Ethereum's ERC-20 token standard, for fresh purchases or trade it on the company's financial services unit MercadoPago.