By Andrea Hargraves 
Brazilian holding 2TM, which owns Mercado Bitcoin and is funded by SoftBank, has bought Portuguese company Criptoloja to begin expanding its operations into Europe.
The deal was announced this Wednesday, the value of the deal for a majority position on the Lisbon digital asset exchange, which is authorized to operate in the country by Banco de Portugal, is unknown.
“We will be able to access the European market with a clear synergy with our presence in Latin America, where we share the same language, recognized brand and cross-selling opportunities for customers. In addition, there are many Brazilians living in Portugal who would like to invest through our platform”, So said Roberto Dagnoni, CEO of 2TM Group, in a statement. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. If confirmed, the goal of the “hold” is for the business to grow in Europe through the process of “OTC like” (over-the-counter market) and, in a second, move the full Bitcoin Market platform to retail as well as investors.
“The crypto business is global, and our Series A and Series B fundraising rounds give us the strength to engage extensively in this scenario. Portugal is a strategic market because, in addition to a specific license demand, and demonstrating increasing importance in the crypto landscape, it is a pathway to market European. In addition to the financial capacity, our investors brought the technological excellence necessary to compete on a global scale”, says Danionni.
2TM ensures it sees many advantages at work in the growing EU regulation process. “Being in Portugal is an important competitive advantage for large B2B clients and OTC operations,” the executive explains. Luis Gomez and Pedro Borges, founders of Criptoloja, will lead the business and coordinate 2TM’s expansion in Europe.
“In the country, cryptocurrency is still an embryonic topic but with huge potential,” says Pedro Borges. “Virtual assets, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, among others, are based on blockchain technology, which is utterly disruptive and will have increasing demand and use. We want the CryptoStore and our platforms to be the place to go, whenever someone, an individual, a company or think of transactions is Or investing, trading or just exchanging ideas about cryptocurrencies.”