Chinese Payments Giant UnionPay to Support Crypto Spending With New Virtual Card

The world's biggest credit and debit card company will support payments with a South Korea-developed cryptocurrency for an upcoming virtual card offering.

Nov 4, 2020 at 1:23 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 10:27 a.m. UTC

China's UnionPay, the world's biggest credit and debit card company, will support payments with a South Korea-developed cryptocurrency for an upcoming virtual card offering.

Under a freshly inked deal, UnionPay has teamed up with Korean payments firm Danal to offer its Paycoin cryptocurrency as an option on the card, slated to launch later this year.
According a report from the South China Morning Post on Wednesday, Danal said the prepaid virtual card will be available in the Paycoin wallet, allowing users to shop at over 30 million UnionPay-accepting merchants across 179 countries and regions, including China.
The card will be able to be topped up with the digital coin and fiat currency.
Launched last year, Paycoin is built on the Linux Foundation-led blockchain platform HyperLedger.
It's primarily used in South Korea and is available on exchanges such as Huobi, UpBit and CoinOne, according to the Paycoin website.
While China has banned crypto trading platforms, owning and transacting with cryptocurrencies is not illegal in the country.

Also read: ATMchain? Card Giant China UnionPay Files New Blockchain Patent

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