The Crypto ecosystem is rising exponentially and drawing massive amounts of capital. But the question arises who will you be able to use your crypto assets in the real world for buying physical goods and services? As of now, only a handful number of platforms accept cryptocurrencies for physical goods and services. On the other hand, the process to exchange cryptocurrencies to your local fiat currency is a bit tricky and sometimes involves multiple hops such as moving funds from your private wallet to an exchange, or opting for an off-fiat ramp, etc.
Therefore, the need for crypto debit cards emerged to avoid all these complicated steps to use cryptocurrencies in real-world transactions. Lately, a range of crypto companies has started popping up with their own debit cards allowing businesses to accept digital currencies while helping users to spend their crypto assets in the real world without converting them first to fiat currencies.
What is a Crypto Debit Card?
Similar to a traditional Visa debit card, crypto debit cards allow users to make day-to-day transactions but using digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. As most of these crypto debit cards are launched by crypto companies in partnership with Visa and Mastercard, thereby, allowing merchants to accept digital payments without having to worry about exchanging the cryptocurrencies into fiat ones.
So how do they work? Well, from the user’s point of view, a user can top up their crypto debit card by moving their crypto assets from a wallet or an exchange to the given crypto debit card and make real-life transactions using the debit card. The merchants, on the other hand, can simply accept the same payment in their choice of fiat currency by accepting these crypto debit cards. In essence, these crypto debit card companies in conjunction with Visa and Mastercard, handle exchanging the cryptocurrencies to fiat currencies making the experience simple and smooth for both the users and the merchants.
What about Volatility?
Whenever we talk about using cryptocurrencies in the real world, the question of volatility always comes up. See, the thing is, most of the cryptocurrencies suffer from heavy volatility, thus making them more of a speculative asset rather than an ideal payment mode. The exponentially high volatility among cryptocurrencies has made retail users skeptical to accept or pay in crypto as currency value can fluctuate 10-15% on either side by the time a transaction settles.
Well, that’s why we have stablecoins. These stablecoins are pegged to real-world currencies, therefore allowing crypto enthusiasts to use cryptocurrencies in real-world transactions without worrying about any volatility issues.
Learn more about stablecoins: What are Stablecoins?
How to Get a Crypto Debit Card?
Now that we’ve understood the need and working for crypto debit cards and if you’re already intrigued and curious to get one. Well, it’s not that hard to get a crypto debit card, though the availability depends a lot on your location/country. As of now, most of the crypto debit cards launched by various companies are available for users residing in the countries of the western part of the globe. I hope to see more companies making crypto debit cards available for users around the globe.
So here are some companies that offer crypto debit cards: