The card will only be only available in the United Kingdom and European Union countries. At least 75,000 people are on the waiting list for new cards.
The digital payments platform, Wirex, announced on March 9 the launch of a new debit card that will allow the use of up to 18 digital assets such as bitcoin, in addition to national currencies, for payments in any physical or digital form.
Wirex explained that Mastercard allows them to issue cards directly to users, with which they can make purchases, save or exchange cryptocurrencies.
Likewise, they will instantly convert their cryptocurrencies to fiat currency, which they will spend anywhere in the world where Mastercard is accepted. The cryptocurrency offers to include Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Dai (DAI), Nano (NANO), Waves (WAVES), Stellar (XLM), and Wirex Token (WXT).
Although it may vary between countries, there are the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore dollars, the euro, the British pound, the Czech crown, the Hungarian forint, the Polish zloty, the leu Romanian and Croatian Kuna.
According to Wirex, the new financial instrument will only be available to clients in the United Kingdom and the European Union for the time being. Users of the payment gateway will be able to convert currencies directly at the point of sale, which means that it will allow the transformation of cryptocurrencies into fiat during transactions.
The company added that 75,000 people had been registered on the waiting list to access the new card to date. Wirex users in the United Kingdom and the European Union can apply for the debit card from March 9 on its website.
Prepaid card service is a process that Wirex went through before. In 2016 Wirex offered the same financial instrument, but with Visa, Mastercard’s main competitor was processing debit card payments. The company didn’t clarify whether from now on they will work with both companies parallel.
Wirex also announced a new rewards model that they have dubbed X-tras. The mechanism will allow customers to earn up to 2% in bitcoins when making a consumption with the Wirex card. It will be available to cardholders and outside the UK and Europe for those users with mobile application activities.
Mastercard’s Increasing Interest Cryptocurrencies
In a statement last February, Mastercard assured that it would begin the supportive process over selected cryptocurrencies directly on its network. This support will allow customers, merchants, and companies to move digital assets freely.
They assure that they have “89 blockchain patents granted worldwide and 285 additional blockchain applications pending around the world.” They own one of the “largest blockchain patent portfolios in the payments industry.”
They are also aware that they play an active role along with several major central banks worldwide in their plans to launch their currencies. Such is the case of the Bahamian sand dollar, where they are working to establish the first prepaid card that works with this digital asset.
By: Jenson Nuñez
