Binance launches its crypto card in Colombia
Binance is launching its prepaid card in Colombia, the third country in Latin America to have the product thanks to a partnership with payment giant Mastercard.
Binance is launching its prepaid card in Colombia, the third country in Latin America to have the product thanks to a partnership with payment giant Mastercard.
The Binance Card is issued by Movii and allows users in the region with a valid national identity document to make purchases and pay bills with cryptocurrencies.
Colombia becomes the third country in Latin America to support the product, following releases in Argentina last year and in Brazil in January. The card provides clients with a simple way to acquire cryptocurrencies without having to pay fees or navigate the sometimes-complicated onboarding processes at exchanges.
Binance card works just the same as any other bank card, except it isn’t linked to a mobile banking app, but a crypto wallet. Users will fund transactions with any of the 12 supported cryptocurrencies, while merchants will be paid in fiat. Specifically, the supported coins are BNB, BTC, ETH, ADA, DOT, SOL, SHIB, XRP, MATIC, LINK, and stablecoins, with users specifying the preferred assets on the app or website. A 0.9% conversion fee on payments using crypto will apply.
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 users can manage their cards via a dedicated dashboard on the exchange’s App and website. The dashboard will feature transaction history and provide easy access to customer support.
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.
Daniel Acosta, Binance’s general manager in Colombia, said: “As one of the world leaders in crypto adoption, Colombia is an extremely relevant market for Binance. We believe that the launch of Binance Card will encourage even wider adoption of crypto among Colombians, contributing to the development of the blockchain and crypto ecosystem in the country while making another step to bring cryptocurrency closer to the everyday life of millions of people.”
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.
