By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
The Card had already been a success in the United Kingdom where it was launched back in April 2019 which led to Coinbase spreading its reach across the European continent.
US-based crypto exchange Coinbase has announced the launch of “Coinbase Card”, a crypto debit card in collaboration with American multinational financial services Visa. According to the announcement, the newly launched Card can be used for payments online, and in-store with cashback for US users only excluding users from Hawaii.
Colin Wu, a Chinese crypto journalist, and blogger first shared the news on Twitter, adding that users will get cashback in crypto of up to 4% on the number of coins they spend. The Card also allows users to make payments in multiple locations across the globe as well as withdraw cash from one’s crypto wallets via ATMs.
Users will however need to download the Coinbase app to be able to use the card, receive crypto cashback, and keep track of their remaining crypto balance.
The latest development comes after Coinbase officially launched a cryptocurrency debit card in some European countries back in 2019. The card, which was available for users in Italy and five other European countries, allowed customers to make purchases directly with Bitcoin as well as other major digital coins. The Card had already been a success in the United Kingdom where it was launched back in April 2019 which led to Coinbase spreading its reach across the European continent.
European users at the time could either download the app for the card or order a physical card that would cost them back £4.95 apiece. Zeeshan Feroz, the CEO of Coinbase UK, during an interview after the company officially launched the card, stated that “You could buy groceries on Bitcoin and then coffee on Litecoin right after.”
Coinbase has been busy this year as the company revealed details about the improvements to their crypto debit card in April. The improvements according to the crypto exchange included the ability to Spend crypto everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted, worldwide, the ability to earn up to 4% back in crypto rewards (initially, customers could opt to earn 4% back in Stellar Lumens (XLM) or 1% back in Bitcoin (BTC), and Seamless card management via the Coinbase app.
In a blog post published on Wednesday (April 6), the Senior Product Manager at Coinbase, Muneeb Imtiaz, explained how the company was improving the Card experience.
“Through Coinbase Card’s upcoming rotating rewards structure, customers will be able to earn a wider variety of crypto rewards to diversify their crypto portfolio. We’re also removing the transaction fee for all crypto spending and allowing customers to get paid into Coinbase with no fees on deposits so they can easily fund their card in any currency. With millions of transactions to date, we plan to remove the waitlist later this spring to allow all US customers to sign up for Coinbase Card,” he stated.
Coinbase, earlier last month, also launched the beta of its long-awaited marketplace for digital collectibles. The NFT marketplace which was first announced in October, officially became available for just 3 million people from a waitlist as the company announced that more would be granted access in the months to come.