Global payment giant Mastercard and cryptocurrency exchange Binance will end their crypto debit card program in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia and Bahrain from Sep. 22.
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Fast facts
- Binance Card is funded with crypto assets and used to pay for goods like traditional debit cards. Only 1% of its customers in Latin America and the Middle East will be affected by the service halt, the exchange said in a Twitter response via its customer support account.
- “Binance accounts around the world are not affected. Where available, users can also shop with crypto and send crypto using Binance Pay, a contactless, borderless and secure cryptocurrency payment technology designed by Binance,” Binance said.’
- Binance and Mastercard did not immediately respond to Forkast’s request to explain why Binance Card services had been suspended and which party was responsible for the decision.
- The development comes days after the exchange announced the launch of Binance Pay, its contactless payment service, in Brazil.
- Earlier this month, London-based payment processor Checkout.com terminated its contract with Binance due to concerns over money-laundering and compliance. Binance in June said that Paysafe Payment Solutions, its euro banking partner, will stop offering its services from Sept. 25.
- Last week, Binance announced that it was shutting down its cryptocurrency payment service Binance Connect, a fiat-to-crypto payment infrastructure.
- Binance has recently been dealing with legal and regulatory pressure especially from the U.S., where the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the platform in June for charges including the alleged operation of unregistered securities exchanges. The Department of Justice is also investigating the platform for allowing Russian users to circumvent sanctions to access the exchange.
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(Updated to include information on Mastercard)