“Payments is one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto, but adoption still has a lot of room to grow,” said Maximiliano Hinz.
Major crypto exchange Binance has partnered with Mastercard to launch a prepaid card for Argentines.
In an announcement on Thursday, Binance said the card will allow its customers in Argentina to use Bitcoin (BTC), BNB and other cryptocurrencies for purchases and fiat ATM withdrawals at any location. where Mastercard is accepted – around 90 million merchants globally and online. Argentina cardholders can also earn up to 8% crypto back on certain purchases.
According to Binance, the introduction of the card — which is expected to “be widely available in the coming weeks” — is part of the company’s efforts to further crypto adoption globally. Argentinian residents will be the first in the region to gain access to the card, but the crypto exchange announced a similar initiative for Binance users in Ukraine in April and for the European economy by 2020.
“Payments is one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto, but adoption still has a lot of room to grow,” said Maximiliano Hinz, general manager of Binance in Latin America. “. and the user pays with the cryptocurrency of their choice. ”
The card requires Argentinians to have a valid identity card or identification. Similar requirements have been put in place for credit cards issued by local crypto exchanges. In 2021, Lemon Card launches a Visa card that offers 2% BTC to Argentine users while Buenbit and Belo both partner with Mastercard to issue prepaid cards and crypto rewards cards.
Despite the recent market downturn, reports suggest that many Argentinians may still turn to crypto. According to an Americas Market Intelligence report from April, researchers found that “crypto penetration” in Argentina has reached 12% – almost twice that of Peru and Mexico.