Binance and Mastercard have launched a prepaid rewards card in Argentina to help people spend crypto on everyday goods in a country where the native currency suffers from one of the world’s highest levels of inflation.
The card allows users to buy things and pay bills with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to a Thursday announcement from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume.
Binance’s announcement added that the prepaid card will convert crypto users on its app to fiat currency (US dollars or Argentine pesos) in real time at the point of sale. Users will also be able to get crypto cashback rewards of up to 8%.
“We believe the Binance Card is an important step to encourage wider crypto use and global adoption, and now it is available to users from Argentina,” Binance Latin America General Manager Maximiliano Hinz said in the announcement.
Argentina will be the first country in Latin America to have the card, which is currently in beta mode and will be widely available in the coming weeks. The announcement added that users will also not be charged for ATM withdrawals.
Crypto wins in Argentina: blockchain analysis company Chainalysis last year ranked the country among the top 10 crypto adopters worldwide.
And Bitcoin is not the only digital asset that is popular. Stablecoins – cryptocurrencies linked to fiat currencies, such as the US dollar – are also finding a use case. Just last week, the Argentinian soccer team Banfield received $6 million in USDC, the second largest stablecoin by market capitalization, as payment for a player from Brazilian club Sao Paulo.
The Argentine government is worried about capital flight as the peso loses value, so last month it introduced new measures focused on crypto: the central bank so that those who bought Bitcoin or other digital assets in the last 90 days with pesos will not be able to access the free foreign exchange market and buy US dollars at the official rate.
Binance’s new debit card may well help crypto traders get around these new measures. A crypto trader in Argentina could theoretically use their Binance account to access US dollar equivalents in the form of USDC or USDT stablecoins and spend those funds with the card – all without the need for a bank account or access to the official exchange market.
Argentina is currently suffering from one of the worst inflation rates in the world – currently 64%. This makes everyday life difficult for Argentines; spending can get complicated as most people use US dollars and there are two exchange rates – one official and one black market. Crypto may be a better bet for some.
Binance already has a crypto Visa debit card: it launched it last year, and it allows Binance users to convert their cryptocurrency holdings to fiat at the point of sale.
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