Crypto.com, which is a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency and payment platform, has entered into a partnership with the global payments giant Visa, which will allow it to become a member of Visa’s principal network in Australia. As part of this, Crypto.com will now be able to roll out its crypto payment card in Australia, as well as fiat lending products with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies serving as collateral.
Crypto.com’s prepaid Visa card was one of the first payment cards linked to Bitcoin when it was launched in September 2018 and is currently one of the largest of this kind in the world, covering 31 markets all over the world, including Canada, the UK and the US, where it was launched in July 2019. Through this card, users can convert their crypto holdings into any of the supported fiat currencies, such as the US dollar, euro, British pound and so on and make payments as they would with any other card at merchants, as well as use the card to withdraw cash from ATMs.
Through this partnership with Visa, the company will now be able to offer these cards in Australia, which will allow it to add yet another market to its growing list of supported countries. It is already in the process of shipping these cards to the likes of Japan, South Korea, Turkey, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, while the company’s ultimate aim is to make these services available all over the world except China. In addition to the ability to convert and use crypto as fiat currency, the card also offers users up to 8% cashback on certain purchases with no upper limit, as well as rebates on membership fees for Spotify, Amazon Prime and Netflix, with zero monthly or annual fees for the card itself.
In addition to this card, Crypto.com has also announced the creation of a product known as ‘Spending Power’, where cardholders will be able to get loans against their crypto holdings. The interest rate for these loans will be set at 9.9%, and this will allow crypto users to be able to gain access to loans without having to sell their crypto holdings. This is the latest in a line of crypto lending services offered by the likes of BlockFi, Celsius and Nexo, among various others.
Crypto.com has doubled its user base to 10 million in just four months, while its revenue grew by 10 times in 2020, illustrating the cryptocurrency boom over this time period. The company is estimating its verified user base, revenue and monthly transacting users to be at around 20% of Coinbase, which is the largest crypto platform in the world. Coinbase had total revenue of $1.24 billion, and 2.8 million monthly transacting users in 2020, which should give a sense of where Crypto.com is at the moment. The company is going to launch its own NFT platform as well, not wanting to be left out of another emerging trend in the crypto market, and they plan to invest heavily in this market as it is seen as one of the key drivers of the entire industry in the near future.
This deal with Visa will allow it to access a large and growing market for crypto, while it is also able to tap Visa’s merchant network of over 70 million merchants globally. Crypto.com has also partnered with the likes of Coinbase and Binance to provide various crypto-based products all over the world, and thus with the popularity of crypto only set to continue growing, the company is well-set to become one of the leaders in the crypto payments space through these partnerships.