Nuvei and Visa to Launch Crypto-Friendly Debit Cards

The financial tech company, Nuvei has announced the launch of crypto-friendly debit cards. The rollout, which involves collaboration with the American multinational payment service Visa, will target Nuvei’s partners across the European Economic Area (EEA) and United Kingdom (UK).

Crypto-Friendly Debit Cards

Simplex – Nuvei’s subsidiary – partnered with Visa to enable its clients to issue crypto debit cards back in December 2020. The fiat-on-ramp service provider is actually a principal member of the Visa network. Hence, it has permission to release Visa cards and offer consumers access to digital assets.

According to an announcement shared with CryptoPotato, the launch of new cards is expected to simplify the process of fiat-to-crypto on-ramp and off-ramp. This should, in turn, help users utilize and spend the funds from their crypto earnings.

Philip Fayer, Nuvei’s Chair and CEO, noted that the launch of branded Visa debit card is a crucial development and a huge asset for the company’s partners and their customers. He also underscored Visa’s role in expanding the ecosystem by bridging the gap between the traditional finance sector and the cryptocurrency industry.

While talking about the rising demand for cryptocurrencies, Nikola Plecas, Director of Crypto Solutions at Visa Europe, stated,

“Awareness of cryptocurrencies has increased significantly amongst consumers across Europe, resulting in increased adoption as more people look to access crypto. We are excited to be part of this, and by deepening our relationship with Nuvei further, we are delighted to provide consumers with a simple and secure way to spend their crypto.”

The objective behind the collaboration between the two is to “optimize crypto and digital asset payments” by providing users with a simple mechanism to close the “fiat-to-crypto-to-fiat” loop since this process depends on the cooperation of the traditional financial system.

Besides, these debit cards should enable the user base of Nuvei’s partners to sell their crypto holdings seamlessly while being able to spend the resultant funds without any delay, wherever Visa is accepted. The announcement also stated that the customers using the new branded cards will have the same spending power with their crypto funds as they would with fiat currencies.

COTI, Simplex Collaboration

Earlier in September, the first batch of cards was delivered to the digital fintech platform COTI. This allowed the latter to launch cryptocurrency bank accounts as well as COTI-branded Visa debit cards.

The main goal behind the move was also to serve as a bridge between fiat and crypto-assets and target customers who were EU and EEA residents.