On Thursday (January 31st), digital asset exchange Binance announced that it is now possible to buy cryptocurrency with a debit or credit card. 

Here is how it announced the news on Twitter:

Binance’s blog post says that it was able to offer this via a new partnership with Simplex, which describes itself as “a fintech company that provides worldwide fraud-free payment processing.” Simlex also helps several other crypto companies with debit/credit card processing, including BitMART Exchange, Xaro, BTCC, and Changelly.

According to Binance, this partnership brings users two benefits:

  • “Fast: Average 10-30 mins for cryptocurrency to reach your wallet”
  • “Low Fees: only 3.5% per transaction or 10 USD, whichever is higher”

Binance users from today can use Visa or MasterCard debit and credit cards to buy BTC, ETH, LTC and XRP (the base currencies Binance supports excluding the stablecoins). To do so, you need to visit: https://www.binance.com/en/creditcard

When you go there, this is the screen you will see:

Binance and Cards Screenshot.png

In Europe, you can choose the transaction amount to be either in USD or EUR. The “crypto amount quoted is based on the current rate and is not final,” and if “the rate changes by more than +/-2.5% you will be asked to reconfirm the transaction via email from Simplex.”

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the CEO of Binance, had this to say about the new partnership:

“We want to provide Binance traders with fast and easy access to crypto, in the most secure way possible. Partnering with Simplex allows us to instantly bridge the gap between credit card payments and crypto for traders globally. On Binance.com, you can now buy crypto with credit cards and start trading in minutes.”

And Nimrod Lehavi, Co-Founder and CEO of Simplex, stated:

“Easy and fast credit card payments, for mainstream users, is a key factor in wider adoption of crypto in general. We’re thrilled to partner up with Binance and together enable a much better, fast and easy experience.”

During the past few months, Binance has launched two fiat-to-crypto exchanges (in Jersey and Uganda), and with this partnership, Binance is “further expanding to global markets.”

The Binance CEO said:

“The crypto industry is still in its early stages and most of the world’s money is still in fiat. Building fiat gateways is what we need now to grow the ecosystem, increase adoption and introduce crypto to more users.”

 

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