The world's leading payment giant, Visa, approved the Australian startup CryptoSpend to issue debit cards for its customers to consume through cryptocurrencies.
According to the Australian Financial Review on July 14, the debit card will allow CryptoSpend customers to spend their cryptocurrency profits in stores, bars, and other places to pay for daily necessities through its app and support cryptocurrencies transactions, including Bitcoin(BTC), Ethereum(ETH), Ripple(XRP), Bitcoin Cash(BCH), and Litecoin(LTC).
This is the first time that payment cards have been allowed to operate in Australia and use cryptocurrency to pay on existing retail payment terminals. The payment card runs on the network of one of the international card schemes.
CryptoSpend is a start-up company co-founded by Andrew Grech and Richard Voice, two partners from the University of Technology Sydney.
One of the co-founders, Andrew Grech, revealed that direct consumption is a more convenient way of selling, stating that:
"More crypto investors would look to cash out their trading gains in shops."
It is reported that the card will be officially issued in September by Novatti, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The encrypted assets will be hosted by BitGo, a digital asset trust company and security company headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
As reported by Blockchain.News on July 8, Visa announced more than $1 billion worth of crypto has spent in the first six months this year by consumers globally. Attributed to cryptocurrency adoption continues to scale the heights, the payment giant believes that the amount would mainly spend on goods and services with its crypto-linked cards.
CryptoSpend revealed that:
Image source: Shutterstock"For the tens of millions of people using those platforms, one of the simplest ways to spend crypto is through a Visa card. We’re seeing digital wallets and crypto platforms build payment products entirely with digital currency."