Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
One of the ways cryptocurrency is becoming more familiar to consumers and merchants is through debit cards backed by crypto holdings. The latest development in this trend came to light early Friday with an announcement that the crypto exchange FTX.com will offer Visa-branded debit cards around the world.
A launch date was not announced, but FTX says a waitlist for the card has been set up to allow for notification when the product is available. The card, a version of which is already available in the U.S. market via FTX.US, is being managed by FTX Payments, the banking and payments unit of the Nassau, Bahamas-based FTX operation.
The card links directly to users’ FTX accounts and can be accepted by any merchant that accepts Visa. The international rollout is expected to cover more than 40 countries, with an initial focus on Latin America. Europe will follow before year’s end, with other overseas launches, including in Asia, next year, according to the company.
FTX stresses the convenience to users enabled by a card with Visa’s global reach. “This card allows users to make use of their FTX crypto balances 24 hours a day, 365 days a year securely and with no administrative or processing fees,” says Sam Bankman, FTX’s chief executive, in a statement. The announcement of the geographic coverage for the card indicates a Visa-accepting merchant base of some 80 million globally.
Founded three years ago, FTX operates FTX.com for non-U.S. residents. It launched FTX US in 2020 to serve U.S.-based crypto holders and investors. In most cryptocurrency transactions involving payments to merchants, including those initiated with a branded debit card, many sellers have elected to receive their funds in the local currency, including U.S. dollars, to avoid the potential downside risk of holding what have proven to be volatile crypto assets. For example, Bitcoin, the largest of the digital currencies by market cap, was trading at more than $47,000 at the end of March, its high for the year so far. Its price by early Friday had shrunk by more than half.
