BlockFi, a New York-headquartered firm having expertise in cryptocurrency aided loans and savings accounts, revealed the collaboration yesterday.
The unique credit card will offer Bitcoin as rewards for purchases instead of airline miles or other forms of cashback. Cardholders are entitled for a reward of up to 1.5% of their purchase value in the form of Bitcoin (BTC).
Evolve Bank & Trust will issue the card for an annual fee of $200. The credit card will be offered to general public at the start of 2021. BlockFi account holders will be offered a chance to participate in the pre-launch sign-up. Zac Prince, founder and CEO of BlockFi stated that the firm is “excited to add credit cards to our suite of products and expand Bitcoin’s accessibility to a broader set of consumers.”
The BlockFi collaboration is one of the initiatives under Visa’s Fintech Fast Track Program, which “aims to speed up the process of integrating” with the credit card network. Terry Angelos, senior vice president and global head of fintech at Visa, said the goal of the fast track program is to help innovative companies “scale with efficiency.”
It is not the first time Visa is entering into crypto sector. Earlier in 2020, the credit card enterprise collaborated with digital startup Fold to provide a debit card that generates crypto based rewards.
In general, Visa has come up with an optimistic view of digital currency adoption, a U-turn from its earlier hostile stance. Visa’s emerging position on crypto is to make sure that it retains its superiority in the payments arena. Right now, there are over 25 crypto wallets linked to Visa’s platform.
The credit card enterprise also assists in formulating regulations for crypto assets across the globe by sharing its knowledge with the World Economic Forum and pave way for the establishment of a framework for the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDC).