Key Takeaways
- Once a niche payment solution, crypto cards have become increasingly popular.
- New features and offerings are driving adoption.
- Revolut and Cardano are among the latest to embrace the trend.
Crypto payments are digital. That’s the whole point. And yet, physical debit cards that let you spend digital asset balances have never been more popular.
In an increasingly diverse and competitive market, Revolut and Cardano are among the latest to embrace the crypto card trend.
From Crypto Niche to Mainstream Payments
Discounting earlier, pre-paid examples, credit for the first crypto-funded payment card with real-time conversion goes to Xapo.
In 2014, the crypto bank launched a Mastercard-branded card that debited BTC from users’ accounts at the moment of the transaction.
It didn’t take long for the concept to take off.
Within a few years, Coinbase and other major exchanges had joined the party.
Meanwhile, specialist providers like Wirex developed more sophisticated solutions that supported multi-crypto balances and direct conversion to different fiat currencies.
At a time when crypto existed at the fringe of mainstream finance and payments, early adoption was limited.
The industry faced an existential crisis in 2018, when Visa terminated its relationship with WaveCrest, which served as the primary issuer for most crypto debit cards at the time.
With WaveCrest cut off from Visa’s global payment network, cardholders faced declined transactions and frozen balances.
In Europe and the U.S., the incident galvanized the crypto sector into action, prompting firms to seek their own e-money licenses and boosting a generation of WaveCrest alternatives.
Post-2018, adoption started to surge. Today, consumers can choose from dozens of crypto cards offered by fintech startups, major crypto exchanges, digital wallet operators, and even banks.
Crypto Cards Add New Features
In an increasingly crowded field, issuers have sought to differentiate themselves. For instance, OKX’s latest product integrates with Brazil’s digital wallet service, Pix.
Meanwhile, Revolut launched a new stablecoin card on Monday, Nov. 10, that converts USDT and USDC to fiat dollars one-for-one, without fees.
On Tuesday, Standard Chartered also entered the fray via a partnership with DCS in Singapore.
Startups like ReDotPay and Yellow Card have specifically marketed stablecoin cards in the Global South, where dollar-denominated coins provide shelter from economic instability and local currency inflation.
But the original premise of funding payments with BTC or other crypto balances is still going strong.
More than a decade after it helped pioneer the concept, Wirex’s latest offering supports over 685 cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
Launched on Tuesday, Nov. 11, Cardano Card represents a “major milestone” for the Cardano ecosystem as it expands into banking and payments, Wirex co-founder Georgy Sokolov said in a statement shared with CCN.
A Different Kind of Crypto Payment
In contrast to revolutionary narratives that position digital assets as a replacement for fiat, crypto payment cards highlight a more harmonious relationship between the two.
Rather than seeking to reengineer the world’s financial infrastructure, crypto cards build new utility on top of it, combining blockchain innovation with the global reach of established networks.
As a result, millions of merchants who accept Visa and Mastercard can also accept crypto payments without requiring wallets, QR codes, or fiat off-ramps.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
