- FTX is launching bitcoin and crypto-backed debit playing cards in 40 international locations.
- The trade partnered with Visa and can deal with Latin America, Asia and Europe.
- The providing is offered to US customers, and the partnership will now be prolonged internationally.
Visa has partnered with one of many world’s main cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX, to launch bitcoin and cryptocurrency debit playing cards internationally, per a press launch.
“The debit playing cards, that are linked on to a person’s FTX accounts, are at present obtainable in the US and at the moment are being rolled out globally in over 40 further international locations, together with many throughout Latin America,” p[er The next phase of the rollout for the FTX-branded Visa debit cards is expected in Europe before the end of the year, with additional regional launches planned for 2023
Visa, along with its competitors in the marketplace, continues to hold that users of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies still want to use their holdings as a medium of exchange, even amid a bear market downturn.
“Even though values have come down, there’s still steady interest in crypto,” said Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu, per the release.
The debit cards simply connect to FTX’s platform enabling users to spend the digital assets in their wallets without needing to remove the assets from the exchange’s platform.
“We don’t have a position as a company on what the value of cryptocurrency should be, or whether it’s a good thing in the long run –– as long as people have things they want to buy, we want to facilitate it,” said Prabhu.
Visa’s major competitor, Mastercard, has also partnered with a number of different companies to offer bitcoin and crypto-backed debit cards. American Express has reportedly expressed interest in offering a similar product as well, though its CEO said it likely would not be “anytime soon.”
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried discussed Visa and other payment providers entering the ecosystem in a CNBC report:
“There’s a decision you have to make as a traditional payments company: do you want to lean into this or do you want to fight against it? I respect the fact that many of them are leaning into it.”
