Binance and Mastercard To Bring Streamlined Crypto Payments to Argentina

key takeaways

Latin America has one of the highest rates of cryptocurrency adoptions in the world
“Payments is one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto,” the general director of Binance in Latin America said

Centralized crypto exchange Binance and Mastercard are teaming up to offer a new prepaid crypto card in Argentina, with the aim of making crypto payments more accessible in the region.

The card allows Binance users with a valid identification card to use some cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and Binance’s BNB token, for day-to-day transactions and earn up to 8% crypto cashback on eligible purchases.

Argentina will be the first Latin American country to have access to the product, which is currently in its beta phase.

“Payments is one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto, yet adoption has a lot of room to grow,” Maximiliano Hinz, general director of Binance in Latin America, said in a statement.

“We believe the Binance Card is a significant step in encouraging wider crypto use and global adoption and now it is available for users from Argentina,” Hinz said.

The Latin American region has seen high rates of crypto adoption, with recent surveys showing that more than 74% of the population prefers businesses that accept cryptocurrency payments.

This will not be the first partnership international payments platform Mastercard has made with cryptocurrency companies to expand its footprint in Argentina. The company last year partnered with Argentina- and Peru-based cryptocurrency exchange and cross-border payments platform Buenbit on a prepaid card in cooperation with BKR.

Its competitor, Visa has also been eyeing the region. Recently, partnering up with Lemon, an Argentinian bitcoin exchange to release cards offering a 2% bitcoin cash back option for every transaction.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.