MasterCard Goes All-in on Bitcoin

Hey, it’s Marc.

MasterCard just announced a non-custodial Bitcoin debit card. This is huge 🤯

What you need to know:

• The card is a euro-denominated crypto debit card launched together with Mercuryo.
• Users can spend Bitcoin from self-custodial wallets at 100M+ merchants globally
• This is a massive step for Mastercard, building on a pilot with MetaMask

This legitimzes Bitcoin as an every-day currency beyond a store of value.

Even more important:

1. Direct spending: Just like using a regular debit card. No need to convert to fiat first.
2. Seamless: The card is compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay.
3. Full control: Users retain full control of their crypto assets in their self-custodial wallets.

Previously users had to:

1. Transfer crypto from a self-custodial wallet to a centralized exchange.
2. Sell the crypto for fiat currency.
3. Transfer the fiat currency to a traditional bank account or debit card.
4. Finally, making the purchase using the fiat currency.

All this is reduced to one step. 🤯

The catch: the fees

– €1.6 issuance fee
– €1 monthly maintenance fee
– 0.95% per transaction

This is a big step for Mastercard.

And an ever bigger one for crypto adoption.

Are stablecoins next? 🤔

That’s it for now.

– Marc