Coinbase and Visa have joined hands to make paying with cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple a lot easier.
Using Coinbase for Crypto on Credit
Many have long argued that paying for goods and services with digital currencies is either difficult or cannot be done thanks to their volatile prices. One may wind up paying for an item that’s $50.00 with $50.00 worth of bitcoin. The next day, the price of bitcoin goes down and that $50.00 turns into $35.00. Thus, the company loses profit on the sale while the customer gets to keep the item at full value.
Visa and Coinbase are now working to change this with the new “Coinbase card,” a credit card that Coinbase says will allow people to “spend money as effortlessly as the money in their bank.”
The U.S.-based exchange issued a statement that reads:
This is the first debit card to link directly with a major cryptocurrency exchange, allowing people to spend their crypto balances direct from their Coinbase accounts. Previously available crypto cards required users to pre-load a specific amount of crypto onto their card, adding a point of friction to the process.
The card has a $6.50 issuance fee for all customers. It can be used to spend bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP “in millions of locations around the world,” according to the statement. The process works by converting cryptocurrency to fiat money whenever it is utilized. The merchant selling the product or the service to the cardholder will then get paid in traditional currency.
In addition, users can select which of the four cryptocurrencies they’d like to use or load onto the card through a new application that supports all assets available on the Coinbase exchange. Customers will also gain access to transaction summaries, spending categories and instant receipts so they can keep track of whatever they purchase.
At press time, the card is only available to users in the U.K., though executives say they’re looking to increase availability throughout Europe in the coming months. There are also no current plans to issue the card to users outside the continent. This is odd to say the least, considering Coinbase is situated the United States.
Lack of Popularity in the U.S.?
Nevertheless, Apto Payments – once known as Shift Payments – is providing Coinbase with the technology it needs to make money conversions possible. The company previously discontinued its latest product, the Shift Card, last February, which allowed U.S. crypto holders to convert their own stashes into fiat currencies for respective purchases. Perhaps “crypto spending” doesn’t have quite the solid following it should in America.
U.K. payment processor Pay Safe is the company issuing the cards. At the time of writing, Coinbase is valued at over $8 billion.