Visa launches Bitcoin cashback cards to compete with Mastercard in Latin America

Payments giant Visa continues to roll out new crypto debit cards in Brazil and Argentina via partnerships with various local fintechs.

Latin America with its roughly 665 million inhabitants that have a number of crypto enthusiasts due in part to extremely deteriorated economic conditions is attracting covetousness.

The cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to grow in this region, with increased investment, greater consumer adoption and more crypto-related use cases.

Visa cards will have a rewards program

The dispute between Visa and Mastercard to reach bitcoin (BTC) users in Latin America with debit cards has intensified in recent days.

The most recent card was launched by crypto asset exchange Ripio in partnership with Visa for its users residing in Brazil, and in the coming months it will arrive in Argentina, a Brazilian media outlet reported.

Visa is not new to debit cards offering bitcoin cashback via its partners. Particularly in Latin America, knowing that the region ranks fifth in the world for crypto adoption, consistently capturing between 8% and 10% of its global business.

In fact, eager not to stop there, the company has garnered new partnerships with several financial technology companies in Brazil and Argentina, as it told Expansion media in June.

Partnering with Lemon Cash, an Argentine crypto-exchange, Visa had launched in 2021 a card offering 2% cashback in bitcoin. With the same partner, the U.S. leader in payment solutions, is now adding prepaid cards for users in Argentina, in collaboration with crypto trading platform Satoshi Tango and Crypto.com cards.

Most importantly, Visa has also teamed up with exchange Ripio, which recently distinguished itself by partnering with a large-scale crypto trading project for a prepaid crypto debit card.

The new card, which in principle it can be obtained digitally via the exchange site, allows you to make payments with bitcoin and other cryptos, as well as with the Brazilian real, the official currency of that country.

In addition, the card will have a rewards program. Users will be able to earn 5% cash back in bitcoin on every purchase they make.

The 5% cashback in BTC is an excellent return tool for users and certainly far superior to the options offered by traditional financial institutions.

Sebastian Serrano, CEO of Ripio, to the media Portal do Bitcoin :

The company hopes to launch 250,000 cards by the end of the year, offering the product to its one million users in the country.

The card is expected to be available to Argentine residents by the end of the year, before its expansion to Colombia, Uruguay and Mexico.

Visa is not alone in developing a conquest strategy there. The giants of the crypto sector are also making sustained efforts by buying local exchanges, like Huobi with Bitex, launching like Tether a stablecoin backed by the Mexican peso, or/and opening regional branches like Binance in Rio de Janeiro, which by the way, got its hands on the Brazilian brokerage company Simpaul Investimento.
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