Coinbase Visa debit card holder can use their crypto holdings to make payments to various merchants using their Google Pay wallets. This functionality is enabled by a recent collaboration between the crypto exchange and Google.
Coinbase made the announcement on Tuesday March 17, indicating that cardholders can easily integrate their crypto wallet with Google Pay wallets thanks to a tie-up between the two organisations. The integration will enable the users to make crypto-backed payments using Google Pay enabled devices such as smartphones, tablets and smartwatches among others.
The crypto exchange launched the debit card in April 2019 and recently got approval as a Visa principal member in February 2020. The approval provides premium membership perks to Coinbase users including access to more services and markets further enhancing their experiences.
The San Francisco based crypto exchange now becomes the first company to enable crypto-backed mobile payments. The newly created payment gateway enables android users to use their crypto balances to pay for anything from groceries, travel, online shopping, vacations etc in a fast, secure and simple manner.
The new service will be initially available to Coinbase customers in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The company stated that it is working to expand to other European countries within the year.
Users can make payments of up to £10,000 ($12,100) per day using their cryptocurrency balances through their Coinbase Visa debit card. Users select the cryptocurrency they wish to pay with and the platform instantly exchanges to the merchant’s preferred fiat currency.
Coinbase users will also have a huge variety of cryptocurrencies to choose from as the card supports multiple currencies. Initially, only Bitcoin (BTC) payments were possible but the company soon after added support for Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). This offering was further expanded last November as Coinbase added support for XRP, Basic Attention Token (BAT), and Stellar Lumens (XLM). The crypto exchange users will hope the company adds support for multiple other cryptocurrencies to further diversify the payment options to choose from.
The new payment method will also be available for users that have requested their cards but have not received them yet. Going by to the Coinbase announcement, users can add their card details to Google Pay and proceed to make payments as they wait for their physical cards to arrive.
Image courtesy of Coinbase
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