Binance is launching its crypto debit card in Argentina, the first country in Latin America to have the product thanks to a partnership with Mastercard.
Binance debit card works just the same as any other bank card, except it isn’t linked to a mobile banking app, but a crypto wallet.
Binance lets clients top-up their card with funds through the Binance Card App and then convert their crypto holdings to fiat within seconds, which can be spent at over 90 million Mastercard merchants worldwide. As such, the card doesn’t directly connect to the platform’s customer account.
Binance card holders can earn up to 8% in crypto cashback on eligible purchases and enjoy zero fees on ATM withdrawals. Clients can pre-select the digital wallet they want to debit when they fund the card balance. The latter can currently hold only two digital currencies, namely Bitcoin and Binance’s native token BNB.
Whenever a cardholder makes a payment, Binance Card instantly converts the cryptocurrencies into other fiat currencies and automatically deducts all expenses and commissions, which yet to be disclosed.
“Our work with digital currencies builds on our strong foundation to enable choice and peace of mind when people shop and pay. Together with our partners, Mastercard has been leading the payments industry in enabling entry to this exciting new world, helping bring millions of additional users into crypto and other digital assets in a safe and trusted manner”, said Walter Pimenta, Executive Vice President, Products and Innovation, Mastercard Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Payments is one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto, yet adoption has a lot of room to grow. By using the Binance Card, merchants continue to receive fiat and the users pay in cryptocurrency they choose. We believe the Binance Card is a significant step in encouraging wider crypto use and global adoption and now it is available for users from Argentina”, said Maximiliano Hinz, general director of Binance in Latin America.
Binance has already signed a partnership with Simplex to enable users to buy cryptocurrencies with their credit cards. This collaboration allows Binance’s international users to make fiat deposits via a debit or credit card, which effectively provides a fiat onramp for its clients around the world. Users are routed to checkout with the EU-registered fintech company, which takes care of the authorization, payment processing, and delivery of cryptocurrencies. This makes using bank cards more straightforward and also taps Simplex’s expertise in verifying and securing crypto transactions.
Specially issued crypto cards are becoming the norm that is quite popular since they allow users to cash out their digital assets and spend them at thousands of credit card-accepting merchants worldwide. These cards resolve one of the greatest drawbacks of cryptocurrencies, which is the inability to use them in everyday life with the same ease as traditional currencies.
Latin America ranks fifth in the world for cryptocurrency adoption and consistently captures between 8% and 10% of global cryptocurrency activity. The region saw a ten-fold increase in the use of cryptocurrencies over the last two years. Leading the way are Venezuela and Argentina, ranking seventh and tenth, respectively, in the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index published by Chainalysis.
