Visa to Approve Cryptocurrency Card by Australian Startup

Visa is reportedly set to approve Australian crypto startup Cryptospend’s issuance of debit cards for spending bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies. “We have a lot of demand for the card,” the company claims.

Global card giant Visa is expected to announce later this week the approval of the issuance of a physical debit card that will allow Cryptospend app users to spend their cryptocurrencies using existing payment terminals, Cryptospend co-founder and CEO Andrew Grech reportedly said.

“It will be the first time cryptocurrencies can be spent using a payments card issued in Australia that runs on the network of one of the international card schemes,” AFR publication reported Wednesday.

Launched last October, Cryptospend supports bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, bitcoin cash, and XRP. Grech detailed:

We have a lot of demand for the card. If the market is green, someone could say it’s time to spend some of my profits. On the other side of the fence, another person might say it’s going to keep going up, I’ll hold onto it. But we have seen more spending volume when the price is going up.

Prior to Visa’s approval, Grech and fellow co-founder Richard Voice went through a rigorous process to ensure the privacy and security of users’ information as well as compliance with anti-money laundering requirements. Custody of the firm’s crypto holdings is provided by Bitgo.

Visa has also approved ASX-listed Novatti to issue the prepaid debit card. The card is expected to be in the market in September.

Cryptospend is already linked to the central bank-backed New Payments Platform (NPP), which allows its users to instantly move crypto balances to Australian bank accounts, the publication explained, adding that customers are already able to pay bills using crypto balances through the app.

Visa recently said more than $1 billion were spent on crypto-linked Visa cards in the first half of 2021. The company is also partnering with 50 crypto platforms to allow crypto payments at more than 70 million merchants.

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