Competition of crypto payment systems
There are several debit cards around the world allowing to use cryptocurrencies for everyday payments. Here are some of Weld’s key competitors, whose experience we used to build our outstanding payment ecosystem.
Wirex
Wirex’s predecessor, the E-Coin company was founded in 2014. In a year the project successfully raised about $200,000 from 93 investors on the online investment platform BnkToTheFuture.
After rebranding in March 2017, Wirex raised $3 Mn in a Series A funding round. The key investor of the company was the Fintech fund created by the Japanese financial giant SBI Group. In April 2018, Wirex announced the launch of non-contact debit cryptocurrency card and became the first major provider of crypto wallets and cards in the industry.
Wirex operates in 130 countries with 3.1 mn of registered users. The company offers a Visa payment card with crypto asset support. In 2020, Wirex acquired the status of a crypto-friendly member of the Mastercard community.
In March 2021, Wirex released a multi-currency Mastercard card with support for key digital assets in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA).
Binance
Unlike some simple regular cryptocurrency cards, which allows only to top up it with a single currency and convert it into fiat at ATMs, Binance Card works like all common debit cards. Except the fact that it’s linked to a Binance account.
Using the Binance Card application, users can top up their wallets with BTC, BNB, SXP, and BUSD coins. The Binance card also allows using cryptocurrencies for payments and purchases. The system uses the Swipe platform, which allows avoiding unnecessary transactions until the exact moment of purchase.
Binance’s partner in exchange’s card project is the VISA payment giant. It made it possible to save card users from administrative and payment processing fees, while fees from third parties may be charged still. Binance also ensures the Binance Card users’ funds are protected following the exchange’s high-security standards.
Binance Card offers users up to 8% of cash back for purchases. The company expects the card will be accepted by more than 60 mn of retail merchants all around the world.
Coinbase
Founded in 2012, Coinbase is the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in the United States. The company aims to create a developed ecosystem allowing users to conduct the maximum number of operations with digital currencies far beyond the traditional exchangers’ and exchanges’ service list. Coinbase, in particular, acts as a custodian of its user assets.
Additionally, Coinbase uses internal investment programs to expand its cryptocurrency business into related industries, such as primary brokerage, data analysis, and lending. At the same time, most of the company’s revenue is still made up of transaction fees charged to its retail customers.
In October 2020, Coinbase announced the release of its Coinbase Card debit card for the United States market. While most cryptocurrency cards are limited to one or two digital coins, the Coinbase Card works with more than 30 one. The card model involves the exchange of digital coins into US dollars directly before purchases and withdrawing funds from ATMs.
Coinbase Card users also got the possibility to pay for goods with cryptocurrencies and receive cashback in XLM or BTC. The rewards program, available only for US customers, allows them to receive 4% cashback in Stellar Lumen (XLM), or 1% in BTC. The issuing of a Coinbase card is free, however, there can be some converting fees. The exchange warns they can be rather high.
Revolut
The financial startup Revolut was launched by Russian natives Nick Sidonsky and Vlad Yatsenko in July 2015. Revolut allows users to pay for purchases, store and exchange more than 150 currencies, including digital ones, as well as make free local and international money transfers at the real exchange rate.
Since December 2018, Revolut allows to store money and pay for purchases with a prepaid card, which can be purchased at Wilko stores in the UK, or ordered remotely. After activation, the Revolut card will allow to withdraw cash from ATMs, make purchases, and use many services.
Bitpay
The cryptocurrency payment services provider BitPay was founded in 2011. In 2013, the company raised $510,000 of retail, as well as more than $2 million of venture capital investments, which were used for developing cryptocurrency services and spreading the market presence.
In 2014, Index Ventures, RRE Ventures, as well as Virgin Group’s Richard Branson and Yahoo founder Jerry Yang invested a total of $30 mn in the project.
Weld
In July, the global crypto industry statistics service Chainalysis released a report that represented Ukraine as one of the world-leading crypto adoption countries. At the same time, regulatory and law difficulties make it impossible for crypto card services to come to the Ukrainian market. It’s worth noting the unfortunate fact none of the services mentioned above plan to deploy their work in Ukraine or SIC countries.
The Weld card will support several cryptocurrencies at once and work like a regular debit card. For its run, it will be enough just to have a Weld account.
Weld also will be the only service that will support all popular cryptocurrency exchanges at once. To run the application user won’t require to top up its wallet. It will be enough to keep money on his accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges or custodians.
For example, the recently gained profit on Binance, Coinbase, or Huobi can be immediately spent for purchases without any transactions implying additional fees. In this aspect, the Weld will be unique on the market.
Weld founders have related businesses, have a deep understanding of the internal market structure of the CIS countries and the local mentality. This will encourage a rapid increase in the number of users and service expansion.
Next year Weld users will have access to loans with special rates lower than the market average, as well as insurance, discount, and cashback services.
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