Australians will soon be able to use Visa cards to spend their Bitcoin holdings for the first time as the global payment giant is partnering with local fintech app CryptoSpend, the Australian Financial Review reports.
Fast facts
- CryptoSpend allows payments to be made in several cryptocurrencies to any account in the Australian banking system, crediting the receiver with an equivalent amount of fiat currency. The new card will be known as a “zero-balance card,” as the balance in Australian dollars will be variable and draw straight from the value of the Bitcoin in the wallet to pay vendors in fiat.
- The card, available in September, will be released by Australian company Novatti, and is expected to be announced by Visa later this week.
- Global spending on crypto-linked Visa cards continues to gain momentum, with the company recently reporting more than US$1 billion worth of crypto was spent on its network during the first six months of 2021. The company has partnered with more than 50 crypto platforms, including Coinbase, Crypto.com and FTX, to enable customers to spend cryptocurrencies at over 70 million merchants around the world.