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Debit Card | CRO Becomes VISA Principal Member, Introduces Crypto Loans; FTX Issues Cards in the U.S. through Swipe

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Debit Card | CRO Becomes VISA Principal Member, Introduces Crypto Loans; FTX Issues Cards in the U.S. through Swipe

The crypto debit card, a crypto debit card, has become a battleground in the cryptocurrency industry as Visa and Mastercard, the two major clearing network institutions, are increasingly welcoming cryptocurrency businesses. Crypto.com's CRO, ranked 18th in market capitalization, and Swipe's SXP, ranked 160th, have recently made progress.

Crypto.com: VISA Principal Membership, Collateral Loans, NFT

Crypto.com's CRO announced new partnership with VISA last night on the 18th, becoming a principal member with card-issuing capabilities. Starting next month, the company can issue cards directly from Australia and deliver them to regions in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

This is a significant advancement for CRO as in the past, companies like this in the cryptocurrency payment processing sector had to rely on trusted card-issuing financial institutions like VISA or Mastercard. For instance, CRO had paused card issuance and related services last year after its card-issuing institution, Wirecard, filed for bankruptcy. Although CRO found an Asian card issuer, PayrNet, in October last year, there were still limitations. Therefore, obtaining the right to issue cards independently should be a significant advantage for CRO to overcome past challenges.

In addition to card issuance, CRO also has its own exchange, DeFi products, etc. In the latest announcement, it mentioned offering a loan product called "Spending Power," where users can use cryptocurrencies as collateral and borrow fiat currency. There are currently no detailed information available about this product. Moreover, CRO can provide cryptocurrency-to-fiat conversions, including Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), Singapore Dollar (SGD), US Dollar (USD), Canadian Dollar (CAD).

Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, stated that the company's business grew tenfold in 2020, estimating to be one-fifth the size of Coinbase. The company is reportedly planning to launch an NFT platform and aims to go public with an IPO in 2023.

FTX Issues Cards in the US Through Swipe

Since Swipe was acquired by Binance, its popularity has skyrocketed. Although it lacks the ability of being a VISA principal member and has limited card issuance regions, with the support of major exchanges like Binance and FTX, the fact that both exchanges issue cards serviced by Swipe is a major selling point. On the 17th, FTX was pleased to launch the FTX Card in the United States.

However, this card is only available for FTX US users and restricted to US residents. According to FTX, the card can be used globally and will primarily link to the FTX US account, with USD in the account as the primary spending currency.

As per the rules, when USD is insufficient, the system will automatically convert other currencies into USD for payment. Further inquiries to FTX revealed that the priority order for converting other currencies aligns with the priority order of collateral assets as shown in this table.

In response, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao commented that FTX US was ahead of Binance US in accomplishing this, but a bit of competition is good for the industry. FTX founder SBF replied, whether you can enter the US first or we can expand internationally first?