MetaMask users can now buy crypto with fiat directly from their wallet

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(Kitco News) – As the cryptocurrency ecosystem struggles to overcome an increase in enforcement actions from regulators and a pullback in engagement from banking institutions, crypto fans received some positive news on Friday in the form of a new fiat foray into popular crypto wallet provider MetaMask.

ConsenSys, a leading software company for Ethereum and decentralized protocols, announced a new partnership with Mercuryo, a leading crypto payment company. Mercuryo’s payment system will be integrated with MetaMask, allowing MetaMask users to purchase crypto-tokens with bank cards, Apple Pay and various bank transfer methods directly from their wallet.

The integration allows users to bypass the need to engage with centralized exchanges and operate fully within decentralized finance (DeFi), helping to simplify the purchase of digital assets with instant checkouts and easier user onboarding.

“Our integration with Mercuryo helps streamline onboarding and the process of acquiring digital assets without complex identity verification,” said Lorenzo Santos, Product Manager for MetaMask. “This allows our users to seamlessly explore the Web3 ecosystem, including NFT marketplaces, play-and-earn games, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized financial applications (DeFi) and metaverse worlds.”

The partnership is aimed at users with little or no crypto experience – as most experienced users are well versed in navigating between DeFi and centralized finance (CeFi) – and bills itself as an easy way for MetaMask users to buy popular tokens and coins with one of the more than two dozen supported fiat currencies.

Some of the supported currencies include US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, Turkish Lira, Japanese Yen, Mexican Peso, South Korean Won, Swedish Krona, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar and Australian Dollar.

There are currently 18 cryptocurrencies supported by Mercuryo, including Ether (ETH), Basic Attention Token (BAT), USD Coin (USDC), Dai (DAI), Tether (USDT), Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (MATIC), Fantom (FTM) ) and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Using Mercury’s onramp, MetaMask users will be able to purchase up to €699 ($762) in a few simple steps without having to do a full identity verification.

“Partnering with market leaders like MetaMask is an exciting opportunity for Mercuryo to help more people experience cryptocurrencies in the easiest way,” said Petr Kozyakov, CEO of Mercuryo. “Instead of opening yet another new account on one of the exchanges, users can manage their digital assets on a single platform.”

This development comes at a welcome time for many in the crypto industry as banks have recently withdrawn services for crypto companies and exchanges.

In January, Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp., the holding company for New York-based Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB), announced that it was shutting down its cryptocurrency unit due to “evolutions in the crypto-asset industry” and changes in the regulatory landscape relative to banks’ involvement in crypto-asset-related businesses.

In February, Binance, the largest crypto exchange by volume, announced that it was halting all USD transfers via SWIFT after its banking partner Signature Bank revealed that it would only support USD transactions above USD 100,000.

This partnership between ConsenSys and Mercuryo helps alleviate some of the pressure resulting from the decline in cryptobank integrations, but it is highly likely that more such integrations will be needed in the future as US regulators show no signs of slowing down their oversight or enforcement actions. .