Bessie Liu

Crypto neobank Wirex is partnering with global payments giant Visa to expand its influence in the Asia-Pacific market.



This latest partnership enables Wirex to issue crypto-enabled debit cards to over 40 different countries across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, the UK, Europe and the US.



The London-based neobank has over 5 million customers — most of them based in the UK.&nbsp;



Although it previously <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/uk-tougher-on-crypto-companies">withdrew its registration</a> from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), all crypto activity the company practices in the UK is facilitated through a license it obtained through its subsidiary, Wirex Digital — which is registered in Croatia. 



Over the past year, Wirex has been actively making moves in the APAC market. Most recently, it became a finalist for the Global Fintech Award at the Singapore Fintech Festival in November 2022.&nbsp;



“We&#8217;re excited that Wirex is expanding their focus on Asia Pacific, making it easy and seamless for people to spend their crypto balance at the millions of merchants that accept Visa in the region,&#8221; Matt Wood, Visa’s head of digital partnerships for the Asia-Pacific region, said in a statement.



&#8220;Visa wants to bring more payment options to consumers by connecting digital currencies with our network of banks and merchants,” he added.



This will not be the first time Wirex and Visa will be partnering together. The companies previously worked on developing crypto-enabled Visa debit cards together in the US.



&#8220;It&#8217;s great to strengthen our partnership with Visa, who have played an important role in allowing us to bridge the gap between the traditional and digital economies,” Svyatoslav Garal, regional managing director of Wirex APAC, said in a statement.&nbsp;



“Visa&#8217;s proven commitment to safety, security and innovation will help us to continue developing a next-generation app and card,&#8221; Garal said.



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Asia Pacific Now Has a New Crypto-enabled Debit Card

Casey Wagner

Crypto companies with US operations — including Wirex and B2C2 — withdrew their applications to register with a United Kingdom financial watchdog in recent months after the standards for acceptance were raised.&nbsp;



The vast majority of crypto firms that have attempted to register with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have been denied, the agency <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/cryptoassets-aml-ctf-regime/feedback-good-poor-quality-applications#section-who-this-is-for" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> this week. There are now 41 companies listed on the FCA’s cryptoasset firm registry, according to the <a href="https://register.fca.org.uk/s/search?predefined=CA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agency</a> — or about 15% of applicants.&nbsp;



An FCA executive, Sarah Pritchard, in a <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/33650/documents/183917/default/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">letter</a> earlier this month said 85% of the firms vying for the regulator’s approval “were unable to demonstrate they met the required, minimum standards.”



Added Pritchard: “As part of the registration process we identified significant failures in relation to key controls such as customer due diligence, risk assessments, transaction and ongoing monitoring [and] governance.”&nbsp;



Wirex issued the following statement to Blockworks: &#8220;In the UK, Wirex Limited is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 902025) under the Electronic Money Regulations 2017 for the issuing of electronic fiat money and payment instruments and we do not provide crypto services through Wirex Limited. All crypto activity is facilitated through Wirex Digital, which is registered by the Croatian authorities (ref 78679748083) for the provision of exchange services between virtual currencies and fiat currencies and/or the provision of custodian wallet services.  Wirex believe that the license application process adopted by the UK regulators is fully aligned to their stated objectives of which one is to protect UK consumers. The regulatory landscape in the UK is being reviewed post-Brexit and specifically for crypto regulation, the UK Government has set-up a Treasury Select Committee Inquiry into Crypto Assets regulation facilitated by the trade body, Crypto UK. Wirex are members of Crypto UK and, like many other firms, have summited written evidence to Crypto UK on suggestions in which we believe the UK regulatory landscape can be improved.&#8221;



The FCA also had doubts that the people leading some of the denied crypto firms lacked the experience and knowledge needed to effectively and safely run the business. 



&#8220;It is difficult to judge whether leading personnel in firms ‘lack appropriate knowledge, skills and experience’ when it is judged against a lack of transparency and an absence of benchmarks and guidance from the FCA,” said Alexander Carter-Silk, cryptocurrency solicitor at Keystone Law. “There is no clear explanation as to what is applicable to crypto asset businesses, possibly because the FCA is fearful of the new technology.”&nbsp;



Earlier this year, the UK set a deadline that any crypto entity hoping to conduct business in the country had to register with the FCA by April 2022.&nbsp;



By March, just 27 of the 100-plus companies under consideration had been approved. A total of 58 firms withdrew or were denied by March 15 of the same year, the regulator said, and a “small number” of companies were found to be allegedly involved in criminal activities, the FCA said.&nbsp;



Wintermute Trading, Galaxy Digital’s UK branch and Fidelity Digital Assets are among the firms that were able to make the cut.&nbsp;



In the US, states have some control over which crypto services can be offered by which companies. For example, New York’s BitLicense law has prevented several companies from conducting business in the state, including Binance.US and Kraken.&nbsp;



Companies hoping to operate in the UK have expressed frustration with the current system, which some leaders say puts too much emphasis on scrutinizing individual firms versus creating a set of standards.&nbsp;



“Former chancellor Philip Hammond has declared that the UK needs to take measured risk in order for the UK to excel as a leader in cryptocurrencies, but for that the community needs measurements to abide by,” said Katharine Wooller, business unit director at digital asset protection firm Coincover.



“If we want to get ahead as a global leader in digital assets, we need to stop assessing firms, and start working with them to develop a regulatory framework.”



Updated 2/10/23 at 6:05pm ET: Added comment from Wirex.



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UK Denies Crypto Companies the US Lets Operate 

Macauley Peterson

<div id="highlights-block_61d6e48a83669" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>XSGD was chosen as Wirex&#8217;s first APAC-based stablecoin</li>
 <li>Wirex users will be able to spend XSGD via the Wirex card</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The Singapore dollar-backed stablecoin XSGD now has a market capitalization of about $206 million US dollars, <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/xsgd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">as tracked by Coingecko</a>, amid a total stablecoin market approaching $170 billion. That’s just 0.1% of the total stablecoin market, and yet it makes XSGD the third largest non-USD currency in the <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/stablecoins" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stablecoin category</a>, after the euro.



The three leading euro stablecoins Euro Tether, Stasis Euro, and sEUR (from Synthetix) collectively register about $411 million.



The US dollar shows little sign of relinquishing its dominance any time soon, however StraitsX co-founder <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/a-majority-of-stablecoins-will-be-non-usd-says-straitsx-founder/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">predicted in October</a> that a majority of stablecoins will eventually be non-USD denominated.



Ease of on-boarding into stablecoins remains the chief barrier to adoption and that’s what the latest announcement from Wirex, a worldwide digital payment platform created in 2014, seeks to address.



The London-based firm developed the world&#8217;s first crypto-enabled payment card in 2015, allowing users to spend crypto alongside traditional currencies, and now sports around 4.5 million customers in 130 countries, according to the company.



“It&#8217;s vital to offer a wide variety of tokens to suit all users, regardless of their lifestyle and experience with crypto,” said Wirex co-founder and CEO Pavel Matveev in a statement on Thursday, noting that stablecoins are key to attracting new users who seek to avoid the rampant volatility of other digital assets.



Wirex first supported stablecoin was MakerDAO’s DAI back in 2019, but newly available on the platform are True (TUSD), USD Coin, (USDC), Tether (USDT), Paxos&#8217; USDP, Stasis Euro (EURS) and XSGD, with the caveat that only some stablecoins are available in certain regions.



StraitX introduced <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/straitsx-launches-indonesia-rupiah-stablecoin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an Indonesian Rupiah-backed stablecoin</a> in November, and it’s sister company FinTech Xfers is licensed by the Monetary Authority of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=singapore" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Singapore</a> for e-money issuance.



Aymeric Salley, Head of StraitsX, sees a bright future for 11 ASEAN group of countries in Southeast Asia, and said in a statement, “we&#8217;re delighted to see Wirex pioneering this effort with XSGD now being supported by the Wirex platform. We look forward to users being able to spend XSGD via the Wirex card.&#8221;



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