Last week, Bitmama, a leading blockchain company in Africa, has launched its newest offering, Physical Crypto Cards. It comes three months after Bitmama released virtual crypto cards, which allow users to spend cryptocurrency without first converting it to fiat currency.
Bitmama’s physical crypto card comes on the heels of another newly launched service, Buy Crypto, Pay Later, which allows users to borrow up to $150 loan to purchase and pay it back over a certain period.
Speaking on the launch of the Physical Crypto Card, Bitmama’s Chief Operating Officer Akinbola Asaolu shares their team experience that led to the development of the product —
“International payments for the average African is a complete hassle. This was quite evident during our team’s recent trip to Nairobi, Kenya, for the African Tech Summit. While we paid for our flight tickets, visa fees, Airbnb, Bolt rides, and all forms of online payments with our Bitmama virtual crypto cards, making the in-store payment was difficult as our local naira debit cards kept declining on POS devices and ATMs due to the $100/month FX spending limit on local cards, which has been recently lowered to $20/month by several local banks in Nigeria. Hence, we had to resort to holding physical dollars, which is tough to source, in order to convert to local currency at a BDC.”
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“Needless to say, this was the experience of the majority of international travelers at the event, **who kept stopping by our booth to ask for physical cards. By popular request, we are again pleased to say that our physical crypto cards are here and have come to stay. Anyone can request and use these cards”, he added.
We can recall that Patricia, in 2020, introduced Africa’s first Bitcoin ATM card that allows users instant ability to withdraw cash directly from their BTC or Naira wallets, make POS and web transactions, and as well withdraw some money from ATM but ran into regulatory bottlenecks with CBN banning cryptocurrency transactions making them to halt the service. Bitmama claims it is the first mainstream African blockchain company to launch physical crypto cards.
The claim cannot be refuted because Bitmama’s card feature is not only limited to Bitcoin but other cryptos as well, and further restate the company’s ambition to onboard the subsequent billion crypto users by building lifestyle crypto products and pushing the narrative of crypto beyond trading.
Features and Benefits of Bitmama’s Physical Crypto Card
- The card can be funded with stable coins – USDT, USDC, cUSD, so you spend crypto directly without first converting to fiat.
- Spend like a local globally with over $10,000 in monthly spending limits at the best rates
- The cards work on in-store payment options – POS terminals – and can be used to withdraw from ATMs anywhere in the world, the perfect travel buddy.
- The card also works for online payments for platforms like Bolt, Uber, Spotify, AWS, eBay, Asos, and Facebook. It can also be used to pay international suppliers very seamlessly.
- No minimum deposit is required to get a card. A new user who completes verification can request one.
- The card will be delivered to users anywhere in the world.
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How to get a Bitmama Physical Crypto Card
The card is currently available for pre-order, so users can follow the directions below to secure one for a flat fee of $7.
Users who pre-order between today and the 30th of April get a 10% discount on the card issuance fee.
About Bitmama Inc
Launched in 2019, Bitmama is a venture-backed crypto exchange that enables users to transact cryptocurrencies and access payment channels like crypto cards to make online and offline transactions, all through a straightforward and easy-to-use interface.
The Delaware and Neuss, Germany based startup was founded by a Nigerian, Ruth Iselema, and has become one of the prominent crypto exchanges in Africa and prides itself in helping thousands of users across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and other countries to facilitate millions of transactions annually through its various features including P2P, (Buy Crypto, Pay Later) BCPL, trading and crypto bill payments.
Bitmama’s novel crypto cards allow users to spend directly with their cryptocurrencies without converting to fiat.