Mastercard and BitOasis unveil crypto-linked payment cards in the Mena region

by Arthur · October 25, 2022

BitOasis, one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the Mena region, and global payments company Mastercard have teamed up to unveil cryptocurrency cards that will allow the use of digital tokens at point-of-sale terminals and across e-commerce platforms.

BitOasis customers will be able to use their cryptocurrency wallet holdings to pay for goods and services at more than 90 million merchant locations globally, the two companies said on Tuesday.

The first BitOasis cards are expected to be available in the markets early next year, once regulatory approvals are secured.

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BitOasis CEO and co-founder Ola Doudin said there was persistent demand among the platform’s customers for solutions that make cryptocurrencies more relevant in their daily lives.

“Research tells us that 47 percent of the Middle Eastern population now believes that crypto is the future of money,” Doudin said.

“We want to enable BitOasis customers to benefit from the convenience of linking their wallets to BitOasis Mastercard crypto cards for use across Mastercard’s global merchant network.”

In March, Dubai became the first in the region to pass a law to regulate virtual assets in a bid to provide investors with a safe environment as they embrace emerging technologies as interest in them grows.

The Mena region is the fastest-growing cryptocurrency market in the world, accounting for 9.2 percent of global digital currency transactions from July 2021 to June 2022, according to a report this month from blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

Individual investors in the region received $566 billion in cryptocurrencies during the period, an annual increase of 48 percent, Chainalysis said in its 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index.

The Mena region is “home to three of the top 30 countries in this year’s Crypto Adoption Index: Turkey [ranked 12]Morocco [14] and Egypt [24]”, says the report.

Meanwhile, BitOasis customers will be issued with virtual and physical BitOasis cards through a digital registration experience on the app, allowing them to make physical and online transactions.

Amnah Ajmal, Mastercard’s executive vice president of market development for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, said consumers looking for “new, fast and flexible digital experiences” were driving the adoption of new payment technology solutions.

“With this comes a greater expectation for businesses to offer more ways to shop and pay,” Ajmal said.

“Through our partnership with BitOasis, we enable the consumer experience to be seamless using their cryptocurrencies in a safe and secure environment.”

Currently, cryptocurrency payments and withdrawals are considered cumbersome, with the overwhelming majority of merchants not accepting such payments directly, according to Mastercard and BitOasis.

Transactions with BitOasis cards will be enabled to take place in fiat currency, thereby adding provisions for dispute resolution and refunds — something that doesn’t exist today when paying with a digital asset, the companies said.

The partnership will address these issues and increase customer awareness and adoption of cryptocurrency in the region.

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About 88 percent of consumers in the United Arab Emirates used at least one emerging payment method in the past year, while 20 percent used cryptocurrencies, according to Mastercard’s New Payments Index.

Although the use of cryptocurrencies was low, 40 percent of digital token users in the Emirates said they had used them more in the past year, Mastercard said.

About 74 percent of UAE consumers said they would use cryptocurrencies more if they better understood digital tokens. This despite the fact that 95 percent of respondents admitted to having mainstream awareness of cryptocurrency.

66 percent of UAE consumers believe that digital assets can be good investments, while 67 percent have completed at least one crypto-related activity in the past year, such as opening a wallet, buying, trading or holding a digital token as an investment, it found The Mastercard survey.

Merchants worldwide are also increasingly willing to accept payments made using cryptocurrencies, with 46 percent of those surveyed in June by Pymnts.com indicating that they had already integrated virtual assets into their mix of payment methods.

About 77 percent of these merchants cited lower transaction processing fees as the primary reason behind adoption.

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