Binance and Mastercard to launch prepaid crypto cards in Argentina

Major crypto exchange Binance has partnered with Mastercard to launch a prepaid card for residents of Argentina.

In an announcement on Thursday, Binance he said the card will allow its customers in Argentina to use Bitcoin (BTC), BNB and other cryptocurrencies to make purchases as well as ATM withdrawals in fiat anywhere Mastercard is accepted — some 90 million merchants worldwide and online. Argentina cardholders can also earn up to 8% back in cryptocurrencies on certain purchases.

According to Binance, the introduction of the card — which is expected to be “widely available in the coming weeks” — was part of the company’s efforts to promote global adoption of crypto. Residents of Argentina will be the first in the region to access the cards, but the crypto exchange announced a similar initiative for Binance users in Ukraine in April and the European Economic Area in 2020.

“Payments are one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto, yet adoption has a lot of room for growth,” said Maximiliano Hinz, general manager of Binance Latin America. “Using Binance Card, merchants continue to receive fiat and users pay in cryptocurrencies of their choice.”

Busy day. #Binance and MasterCardhttps://t.co/bGasmirwxD

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) August 4, 2022

The card requires Argentines to have a valid national ID or documento national de identidad. Similar requirements already apply to credit cards issued by local crypto exchanges. In 2021, Lemon Card launched a card with Visa offering 2% back in BTC for Argentinian users, while Buenbit and Belo partnered with Mastercard to launch a prepaid card and crypto reward card, respectively.

Despite the recent market downturn, reports indicate that many Argentines may still be turning to crypto. According to an Americas Market Intelligence report from April, researchers were found that “cryptocurrency penetration” in Argentina had reached 12% — roughly double that of Peru and Mexico.