Binance unveils debit card to pay with Bitcoin

First Apple Card, now Binance Card? 

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, revealed on Thursday it will soon launch “Binance Card,” a bitcoin debit card that will allow users to spend crypto with merchants in-store and online. 

“Paying with crypto remains one of the biggest challenges in furthering utility and adoption,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), said in a press release. “We believe Binance Card is a significant step in encouraging wider crypto use and global adoption.”

To start, users will be able to load Bitcoin (BTC) or Binance Coin (BNB) through the app, view transactions, withdraw funds, and ask for customer support. They’re essentially transferring funds from their account with Binance onto the card. Retailers will be paid in their local currency but Binance Card users will have the equivalent in crypto automatically deducted from their account. 

The card is currently only available in “virtual format.” Physical versions should be available shortly, Binance said. Because they’re issued by Visa, customers can take advantage of shopping at any one of the more than 40 million merchants that accept Visa worldwide. 

The company said the card, which is in beta, will initially launch in Malaysia and Vietnam but plans to expand to other countries and add support for more cryptocurrencies. 

“We see the Binance Card as a further step in making crypto even more useful,” said Binance’s director of growth, Josh Goodbody. “Users can forget about monthly or yearly card fees, and can expect unique features to be rolled out this year.”

This comes as part of a rapid expansion of Binance's services. The company added a widget to integrate its trading platform to Brave’s browser earlier this week, and added five latin American currencies to its peer-to-peer trading platform the week before.