Mastercard launches self-custody crypto payment card

Crypto holders in Europe will now be able to spend their crypto almost anywhere from the safety of their escrow wallets thanks to a new Mastercard payment card.

Mercuryo, a fintech platform for web3 businesses, announced on Thursday its collaboration with the payments provider to launch “Spend” – a multi-chain crypto card and Mastercard that acts like a debit card.

Spending your crypto anywhere

According to the announcement, the payment card enables crypto payments with more than 90 million merchants connected to Mastercard’s network and includes seamless integrations with both Apple Pay and Google Pay.

“Leading web3 wallets will soon offer Spend cards within their interface, allowing users to top up crypto and spend fiat worldwide,” Mercuryo said.

Mastercard has already introduced payment cards that allow users to spend their crypto with regular merchants, but they typically require partnerships with centralized exchanges to work. This meant that user-held cryptography was trusted with centralized institutions, defeating the purpose for which Bitcoin was originally created.

Instead, Mercuryo says its new card provides a “fast, cost-effective and globally accepted” way to convert crypto to fiat directly from its own wallets. It supports multiple blockchain ecosystems including Ethereum, Solana, Injective, Near, ZKSync, Polkadot and TON.

Users can maintain separate balances between their wallet and spending card. The latter can be topped up immediately by selling crypto from the personal wallet, which is instantly converted into cash. In contrast, traditional “deactivation” methods usually take 1-2 business days for users’ funds to appear in their bank account.

“We are actively working to expand our network and hope to add more wallet partnerships soon,” said Mercuryo.

Mastercard Crypto Ray

Spending is currently available in the European Economic Area (EEA), although it will be rolled out to global regions in the future.

Last month, Ethereum mobile wallet Metamask also launched a debit card with Mastercard, which allows users to use Bitcoin and other assets to buy things at popular stores.

In June, Mastercard also introduced “Crypto Credential,” which allows users of select crypto exchanges in Europe and Latin America to make cross-border transfers using easy-to-remember aliases instead of blockchain addresses.

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