A spokesperson for Mastercard said the termination would kick off on September 22 and is limited to the selected counties only.
Mastercard Inc (NYSE: MA) and crypto exchange Binance are reportedly halting their crypto card partnership in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, and Bahrain. Reuters revealed in a report that the payment processing corporation and the exchange will end their four crypto card programs in the selected countries. At press time, there are no details on the reason for the termination or why the crypto card program is coming to an end. Meanwhile, US regulators sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao in June. The Securities and Exchange Commission claimed that Binance and CZ operate a “web of deception”. However, the crypto company has declared its readiness to defend itself “vigorously”.
Mastercard Is Cutting Binance Crypto Card Ties
A spokesperson for Mastercard said the termination would kick off on September 22 and is limited to the selected counties only. In other words, other crypto card programs offerings in partnership with other exchanges apart from Binance will remain. Binance and Mastercard united to launch a crypto prepaid card in Argentina in 2022. At the time, the exchange announced that the new card was in beta and Argentinian users with the required ID would have access to the product. The development is part of Binance’s vision to expand globally while broadening its services. The card was designed to let holders pay with crypto at over Mastercard’s 90 million merchants across the world.
Binance also took to X, formerly Twitter, to note that it will discontinue its card use in Latin America and the Middle East.
“Only a tiny portion of our users (less than 1% of users in the markets mentioned) are impacted by this. Users of this product will have until September 21, 2023, when the card will no longer be available for use. Binance accounts around the world are not affected,” wrote the company.
In partnership with Mastercard, Binance rolled out a new prepaid crypto card in Brazil earlier this year. The exchange noted that Brazil is one of its top 10 markets globally, and the card is part of its effort to bridge the gap between existing financial services and the buzzing crypto industry. After stating that “Brazil is an extremely relevant market for Binance,” it is surprising that Mastercard is now cutting the crypto card ties.
Generally, users pay with a card, which converts crypto to fiat currencies in real-time at the point of purchase. Besides Binance, Mastercard has partnerships with other crypto exchanges such as Gemini.
Mastercard stock is currently trading at $397.67, gaining over 14% in its year-to-date record.
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