The Binance cryptocurrency exchange announced the purchase of the Swipe.io startup in order to use its infrastructure to issue its own payment cards.
Swipe.io provides users with access to a cryptocurrency wallet and Visa debit cards with automatic conversion of cryptocurrencies to regular money.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said cooperation will be aimed at overcoming the “barrier” between fiat and digital currencies. To do this, you need to provide people with the opportunity to make purchases using cryptocurrencies through traditional financial systems.
Earlier, the head of Binance announced the launch of his own Binance Card debit card, which will allow cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services in 200 countries. However, when implementing this initiative, Binance had some difficulties that Swipe will help to cope with.
“In order to fulfill our mission and make cryptocurrencies accessible to everyone, buyers should easily convert and spend their digital assets, and sellers should freely accept these converted funds. The whole process should go without unnecessary difficulties, and this will increase the level of interaction between the parties. It turns out that at the time of purchase, the user pays with cryptocurrency, and the seller accepts payment in fiat currency, so for them it will be regular payments,” said Changpen Zhao.
During the operation with such a card, the selected cryptocurrency is converted into fiat currency, which will pass through Visa payment channels. This will allow you to spend crypto assets in more than 50 million retail outlets around the world. Swipe serves 31 countries in the European Economic Area. Debit cards are issued by Contis Financial Services Ltd, which has the Principal Member status of Visa and is regulated by the UK Financial Supervisory Authority (FCA).
To date, the Swipe platform supports a number of crypto assets and allows transactions with euros, British pounds, US dollars, Korean won and Philippine pesos, and in the near future plans to cover Asia and North America.
“Through a partnership with Binance, Swipe will make every effort to make cryptocurrencies available to millions of users around the world. Anyone who wants to pay with digital assets,” added Swipe CEO Joselito Lizarondo.
Binance also announced that it has received an SXP stake in the acquisition of Swipe. On July 7, SXP was listed, and users can trade this asset in SXP / BTC, SXP / BNB and SXP / BUSD pairs. Binance added that most SXPs have been blocked for several years, as the exchange is focused on the long-term and sustainable development of SXP and the Swipe ecosystem.
