On Wednesday (March 27), Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin, which was launched in September 2017, announced that it had “partnered with Simplex” to “re-enable” users to purchase certain cryptocurrencies via credit and debit cards (Visa and Mastercard).

Simplex is a FinTech startup headquartered in Israel that was founded in 2014. There are two things that make Simplex interesting First, it “processes credit card payments with a 100% guarantee,” meaning that in the case of a fraud chargeback, “the merchant gets paid by Simplex.” Second, Simplex “works with some of the largest crypto exchanges, wallets, and platforms in the world today such as Shapeshift, BRD, Litecoin Foundation, Mycrypto, XAPO, and Changelly.”

This partnership makes it possible for KuCoin’s clients to purchase “BTC, ETH, XRP, BCHABC and LTC with both USD and EUR in over 100 countries” via credit and debit cards.

You might be wondering about the word “re-enable” in KuCoin’s announcement. You see, KuCoin first announced on 28 November 2018 that it had partnered with Simplex to allow its customers to buy “BTC, ETH, and LTC” with credit/debit cards. But KuCoin had a major upgrade to its platform last month, as a result of which credit/debit card payments for crypto got temporarily suspended. Now, they have been re-enabled again, and it seems that support for XRP and BCHABC (aka BSV on some other exchanges, such as Coinbase) has been added.

In related news, on March 20th, KuCoin introduced its token launch platform “KuCoin Spotlight,” which “aims to assist blockchain projects in raising the needed funds, attracting market attention and improving industrial influence.” KuCoin said that the “first Spotlight project” would be announced shortly. The tokens being launched would be priced in KuCoin Shares (KCS), with prices announced on the day of the sale. Five days later, KuCoin announced that the first lunch event would be on April 3rd:

It seems that partly in anticipation of the increasing demand for KCS, its price has gone up over 226% this month, and 12.88% in the past 24-hour period:

KCS - 24 Hour Chart - 29 March 2019.png

Featured Image Courtesy of KuCoin