Bitget Wallet is launching a payment card in partnership with Mastercard and infrastructure provider Immersve, enabling its users to spend crypto with over 150 million merchants worldwide.
Available through the Bitget Wallet app, the Bitget Wallet Card imposes no fees and enables real-time funding through on-chain swaps and deposits, while purchases are settled on-chain via crypto-to-fiat conversions.
It will initially launch in the UK and the European Union, before rolling out later in Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.
The product harnesses Mastercard’s suite of Digital First tools, so that users can apply for the card through the Bitget Wallet app and then add it to their smartphone wallets within minutes.
From there, much of the day-to-day functioning of the Bitget Wallet Card will be achieved via Immersve, with CEO Jerome Faury telling Decrypt his firm provides the backend infrastructure necessary to connect the self-custodial wallet with Mastercard’s payment rails.
“This includes APIs for card issuance, transaction processing, on-chain protocol and settlement, plus compliance tooling such as KYC and AML integration,” he said. “Immersve enables real-time, blockchain-native spend from the user’s wallet while ensuring the fiat leg of the transaction is handled securely and in accordance with both Mastercard and regulatory requirements.”
According to Bitget Wallet, the card’s launch answers to growing demand from users for a means of making day-to-day payments using crypto. Some 40% of surveyed Bitget wallet users globally have used crypto for payments, Bitget Wallet CMO Jamie Elkaleh told Decrypt, “with higher demand in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and Africa.”
Elkaleh also explained that demand is higher among Millennial and Gen Z users, while regions with less developed banking infrastructure also display greater-than-average demand for crypto-based payments.
He added that, “Bitget Wallet has observed increasing traction in its ‘Pay’ vertical, and the card is a natural extension of that demand, offering a familiar way to spend digital assets while maintaining on-chain control.”
Crypto cards
While the card is being rolled out on multiple continents, one notable omission at the moment is North America, and in particular the United States.
Elkaleh explained that there are no definite plans to bring the product to the States, but that this could change depending on regulatory developments.
“The UK and EEA have been prioritized due to their clear regulatory environments and high level of crypto card adoption,” he told Decrypt, explaining that the card’s rollout in the U.S. “depends on obtaining the appropriate regulatory approvals and establishing local issuing arrangements.”
Despite the lack of a confirmed launch date for the American market, Bitget Wallet and its partners are “actively exploring these steps,” with Gemini and Coinbase among the cryptocurrency platforms that have already launched cards in the States.
While Coinbase’s card is offered in partnership with Visa, Gemini is another firm that has partnered with Mastercard, which told Decrypt that it has been “committed” to bridging crypto and traditional finance for several years now.
“This includes a range of card products, with partners like Gemini, Bybit, MetaMask, and more,” said Christian Rau, the SVP of Digital Assets, Blockchain and Fintech Enablement at Mastercard.
For Rau, one of the chief benefits of partnering with Mastercard is that it provides Bitget Wallet users—and the merchants at the other end of their transactions—with the highest level of security.
He explained that transactions using the card are “protected by Mastercard’s KYC and AML requirements, in addition to several other anti-fraud protections and benefits.”
Big spenders?
The launch of Bitget Wallet Card comes at a time when crypto-linked cards are gaining more traction for online purchases, with a recent CEX.io report indicating that nearly half of all payments made using such cards are for values of €10 ($11.75) or lower.
The same report also revealed that the average transaction for crypto cards is €23.70 ($27.85), whereas for traditional bank cards it’s €33.60 ($39.48).
