• Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, Announced that the Company is Beta Testing the Binance Card, its new Debit Card with Real Transactions
  • The Debit Card is Powered by Swipe, a Crypto-to-Fiat Visa Debit Card Company, Swipe was Recently Acquired by Binance
  • Zhao Hopes the new Card can Help “go from 99% to 100% crypto”

You can soon use a debit card specifically for cryptocurrency transactions. Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted that his company is beta testing their new Binance Card, which they announced back in April.

You can try buying things with crypto but it’s a hassle. There are a few vendors that accept crypto if you can find them. You can also sell your crypto and wait for the withdrawal but it’s a slow, tedious, and often expensive process.

Crypto Moving Towards Transactions

Indeed, many people hold bitcoin for investment purposes, not transactional. Zhao wants this card to be a sign of change.

Binance says that the card connects to your Binance account and works just like your typical debit card. The company wants the card to be accepted by 46 million merchants offline and online in 200 different regions and territories.

In his tweet, Zhao says the beta test includes real transactions from Audible, Amazon’s audio store; Grab, an Uber alternative for Asian markets; and Lazada, a major e-commerce platform.

Users need to sign up via Binance’s landing page, order the card for $15 USD, and download the Binance Card App to their smartphones where you can manage your spending, funds, and card security.

It’s also confirmed that the new Binance card is powered by Swipe, a Philippines-based company specializing in crypto-to-Fiat Visa debit cards. Binance bought the company recently, announcing the acquisition on July 6. The announcement did not give any indication of whether the two companies would work together on debit cards. But we didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

Swipe already supports 20+ cryptocurrencies. As part of the acquisition, Swipe listed Binance’s native token BNB on its platform. At launch, you can buy BNB with SEPA transfers across the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Binance’s Recent Movements (Aside from the Binance Card)

These days, we’re seeing Binance make a strong push for its BNB token. On July 9, BitTorrent announced that users could use BNB and Binance’s USD stablecoin, BUSD, as payment options. BUSD is the first stablecoin featured on BitTorrent for payment. It’s regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

And back in May, Binance struck a deal with CoinPayments, the world’s leading cryptocurrency payments processor. CoinPayments now supports the BNB token, enabling merchants around the world to connect to the Binance community.

The main purpose of BNB is to give users a discount when they pay a fee with that cryptocurrency. Withdrawal fees, trade fees, you name it.

However, the discount decreases year after year to account for the 20% that Binance buys back each year. The coin might become less useful over time, but it’s probably to discourage hoarding in anticipation of the buy-back.

At the time of this writing, BNB is trading at $18.84 USD with a market cap of $2,930,268,780 USD, according to CoinMarketCap. Binance announced its acquisition of CoinMarketCap on April 2.