FTX Readies Visa Debit Card for Users to Spend Crypto Balances

The card is currently unavailable in certain countries – including the U.S.

By Michael Bellusci

Jan 21, 2022 at 4:55 p.m. UTC

Updated Jan 21, 2022 at 7:19 p.m. UTC

Michael Bellusci

Michael Bellusci is CoinDesk's crypto reporter focused on public companies and digital asset firms.

Follow @mikeybellusci on Twitter

Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange told customers Thursday they can join the waitlist for an FTX Visa debit card.

But one geography is not supported: the United States.

FTX says its card won't have fees (aside from third-party ones) and crypto balances will be automatically exchanged at point of sale, where users can spend their crypto anywhere that Visa is accepted globally.

The new card is one of many such offerings on the market, including those from Coinbase, Ledger and others. Coinbase’s card is available to U.S. users. An FTX spokesperson did not immediately comment on why the card wasn’t available in the U.S.

Users will be alerted as the card becomes available in their region, FTX said.

“Crypto payments in C2B [consumer-to-business] merchant acceptance are still nascent today,” according to a recent white paper from payments firm Nuvei. “Crypto merchant payments today represent an estimated annual volume of $6 billion, a tiny fraction of the $10 trillion C2B global eCommerce market.”

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