‘The Future Is Here’—Visa, Mastercard and Binance Suddenly Make Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Cardano and Tether Payments a Reality Despite Price Crash
Bitcoin
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Bitcoin price is down around 50% since the beginning of the year, while ethereum price and other top ten cryptocurrencies including BNB
Now, card and payment giant Mastercard
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Mastercard works with Binance to let people use bitcoin, ethereum, BNB, XRP, solana, cardano, … [+]
Mastercard is set to launch a cryptocurrency payment card – supporting 14 cryptocurrencies, including the US dollar-pegged stablecoin tether, bitcoin, ethereum, BNB, cardano, solana, XRP and others – after striking a deal with Binance.
“Mastercard’s plan to integrate crypto could be an eye-opener for competitors such as Visa, which could follow in Mastercard’s footsteps, to lead the payments industry in this sector,” Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, said in emailed comments.
The crypto card allows users to pay for daily purchases using the crypto they hold in their Binance accounts. The card converts cryptocurrencies to fiat currency at the point of sale and will first launch in Argentina ahead of a planned wider rollout that will support around 90 million online and brick-and-mortar stores.
“We can unlock the full potential of blockchain technology when we make it easier to access and easier to use,” Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach wrote in a LinkedIn post. “One way we’re doing that is bringing crypto to everyday purchases.”
Binance reposted its comments, adding: “The future is here.”
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The price of Bitcoin has risen higher in recent years – which is driving up the price of Ethereum and … [+]
Meanwhile, Latin American crypto company Ripio has begun rolling out a prepaid debit card in Brazil that supports crypto payments and provides users with bitcoin cashback rewards, Ripio CEO Sebastian Serrano said. Coindesk this week.
“This is the first large tokenization project and the first very large company in Latin America to integrate crypto, but we also believe that this is something that is going to be much more widespread and we want to be catalysts for the future,” said Serrano.
In January, Visa revealed that users paid $2.5 billion with its crypto-linked cards in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 — more than half of Visa’s entire crypto volume for 2021.
“This signals that consumers see the benefit of having a Visa card linked to an account on a crypto platform,” said Visa chief financial officer Vasant Prabhu. CNBC at the time. “There is value in being able to access that liquidity, to fund purchases and manage expenses, and to do so immediately and seamlessly.”
