Australian bitcoin and crypto exchange Ebonex is launching a bitcoin and crypto card in Australia that will allow users of the exchange to spend bitcoin and crypto at any merchant that currently accepts MasterCard.
Ebang International Holdings Inc., the company behind the Ebonex exhange, made the following statement in a press release that surfaced today:
“This collaboration with Mastercard will give Ebonex customers the flexibility to spend their crypto holdings anywhere Mastercard is accepted by seamlessly converting it into fiat currency the merchant accepts.”
Ebonex is the first Australian bitcoin and crypto exchange that attained Principal Membership with Mastercard to self-issue crypto-linked Mastercard cards.
According to some reports, this process would not require the conversion of crypto into fiat.
However, statements made by Ebang International Holdings Inc. point towards customers of Ebonex being able to pay in bitcoin or crypto, with the merchant receiving funds in fiat currency. This means that bitcoin will be converted into fiat prior to arriving at the merchant.
A similar scheme is rolled out in “Bitcoin Valley” in Honduras and a MasterCard partnership with Binance in Argentina, which both made headlines last week.
MasterCard released a press statement earlier this week that it is partnering with Binance to launch the “Binance Card” in Argentina, which will allow any Binance customers from Argentina with a valid ID to spend bitcoin at any offline or online merchant that accepts MasterCard payments.
Australia reportedly has a high bitcoin adoption rate, with a large percentage of citizens owning bitcoin or crypto. While the partnership with Binance to launch a bitcoin prepaid card in Argentina could help foster the use of bitcoin as medium of exchange in Latin America, the partnership between MasterCard and Ebonex could have a similar effect on Australia.
Australia is a major English-speaking country and the 13th largest economy in the world, so this news is significant.
If more similar partnerships with MasterCard follow, this could give bitcoin’s narrative as a medium of exchange a massive boost. Bitcoin critics frequently point out that it is only used as a store of value and not as a means of payment.
This could change if a majority of the world’s population one day could pay with bitcoin at any merchant that accepts MasterCard payments.
