Visa Cracks Down on Bitcoin Debit Cards in Europe, Providers Say
BY COIN DESK
THEDAILYCOIN.ORG
JANUARY 6, 2018
Visa, the payments giant, terminated a card issuer’s membership on Friday, causing cryptocurrency debit card providers to suspend their services, according to three of the affected companies.
Bitcoin payments processor BitPay announced in a statement that its European card issuer, WaveCrest Holdings, Ltd., had been told by Visa to close its accounts. The company will refund any remaining balances, as well as card order fees for anyone who purchased a card after Dec. 1, 2017.
According to BitPay:
“Yesterday our European BitPay Card issuer WaveCrest Holdings, Ltd. received direction from Visa® to immediately close all accounts of its prepaid Visa® debit card programs. The BitPay Card (non-US) is one of these programs, along with other cryptocurrency-related and standard prepaid Visa® debit cards. Unfortunately, WaveCrest was unable to provide us or cardholders with more time to prepare for this change.”
Similarly, payment providers Cryptopay and Bitwala announced they would be ceasing their services and returning remaining funds.
Berlin-based Bitwala said on Twitter that its team was holding an emergency meeting to discuss the issue. However, London-based Cryptopay announced in a subsequent tweet that it had already begun negotiating with another card issuer.
Similarly, BitPay said in its statement that it was “already in discussions with potential alternative issuers.”
Notably, the shutdowns is limited to European consumers. BitPay stated that U.S. customers would not experience any disruptions.
In a statement, a Visa Europe spokesperson said WaveCrest had lost its membership with the payments company “due to non-compliance with [its] operating rules.” As a result, all Visa cards issued by the company were closed.
Other Visa card issuers can continue to issue cryptocurrency-based cards.
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