Bitcoin Forum

The Bitcoin community is reeling after several pre-paid crypto debit card providers abruptly suspended service. The companies affected include Bitwala, Cryptopay, Wirex, and TenX.
These services allow individuals to spend cryptocurrencies — predominantly Bitcoin — in traditional brick-and-mortar establishments through a debit card issued by one of the major providers, Visa and MasterCard.

Source (https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/01/05/spending-bitcoin-with-a-debit-card-just-got-a-lot-harder/)

I stopped using Wirexapp for some time now due to their high fees so the way I see it is that these cards were defeating the whole purpose from using bitcoin anyways (high fees, asking for personal info etc.). I hope more debit card providers will follow, as with LN coming, I see no use for them.

ohh noooo  this is really bad news!!  Bitwala, Cryptopay, Wirex, and TenX  are really big players in btc card business.  :'( :'(

Weird that Visa decides this only after 6 months when Visa started to allow only European citizens, it would be better to stop everything directly. Some websites will close the shop and most other will struggle

OP, do you know the reason given by Visa, or have any link about this?

This is really bad, Visa actually stop all the debit cards just because of one provider broke the rules. It is a harsh punishment and I personally feel it is against crypto.

Visa did _nothing_ to "crypto prepaid cards"

they simply withdrew membership of WaveCrest, who abused the rules and was not compiant with the membership program.

This has very little to do with Crypto.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/01/05/visa-locks-bitcoin-payment-cards-crackdown-card-issuer/
 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/01/05/visa-locks-bitcoin-payment-cards-crackdown-card-issuer/)

I think this is the result of the pressure imposed by banks and government on credit card service providers. You know, the government and the banking sector has been standing on the opposite side of the digital currency, because the development of bitcoin will threaten their interests.

bitcoin is direct competitor for visa so we cant expect visa to support bitcoin and blockchain related projects

visa ordered one shonky company to stop playing. that's it. they did not destroy all crypto. this one shonky company supplied almost all visa cards in euros and pounds. there was no alternative card provider apart from a few expensive obscurities.  

visa cards in america with better suppliers work just fine.

let's put the 'establishment attack' memes to bed right now.

'Visa said the cards had been suspended after Visa terminated WaveCrest's membership due to "continued non-compliance with our operating rules", although it said other Visa cards that convert Bitcoin into normal currency would not be affected.'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/01/05/visa-locks-bitcoin-payment-cards-crackdown-card-issuer/

I've been looking for one with low fees and haven't been able to find it yet. The only reason for me to use their services would be to try to avoid the traditional banking. In traditional banking when your deals go sideways and you get into debt or get an unfavorable court ruling your accounts get blocked almost instantly. I have seen how they do it at a bailiff's office. They have a system that shares financial data and they just file a formal motion to release all your info and get back your balances from every single local bank + get all the withdrawals locked down and it takes just 24h. Private companies like the ones offering bitcoin cards are usually outside their reach.

I think this is going to get worse. It will be harder and harder to turn cryptos into fiat, but the way around it is to get businesses to accept cryptocurrencies. This way they as a business will have to deal with all the legal paperwork while the private users remain unaffected.

I have always find it weird that some people in the forum want the banks destroyed and yet they want the banks to accept bitcoin, deal with the fact that if you want to use their infrastructure that you are going to need to follow their rules, we have our own infrastructure and follow our own rules.

I think that a good thing for the community would be a list of all cards still operating and let people choose if they are good or not.

Or all cards used where owned by wavecrest?

The struggle of banks with the crypto currency has just begun. In 2018, there will be a lot of similar news.

Wavecrest owns a huge share of these debit card providers, so I think that if there were a few who remained operational up to now, one day or another these would also be taken to a halt. I benefited greatly from these debit cards specially on buying my games and reselling them since the provider that I have offers rebate when a certain amount was reached when buying with the debit cards. It can also be used in shops and restaurants so it's a pity that these kind of services where brought down to a stop.

Pretty sure that Wavecrest was the culprit on this one yup. And for those of you who are concerned with TenX they already have a new issuer lined up and ready to go so no need to worry for you. The rest I am not sure about yet but I would think they will come up with a plan if they didn't already have a contingency plan.

Bitcoin reached a really serious amount. Many people may be shopping less than paying taxes. That's why it happens ...

Governments have nothing to do with this.

It's not up to debate, nor is it being hushed. It's been publicly stated. Wave Crest Holdings violated repeatedly conditions of Visa partnership programme. They were terminated, and because of this all the cards issued through them cannot be used any longer.

So all crypto card companies in Europe used Wavecrest and not a single one of them differentiated into something else? That s a very bad business model.

Xapo also suspended their visa card with immediate affect  ??? ???

Plus I hear that they don't allow them to issue card for another country users, which means that problem is not crypto currency. Other companies can easily turn to master card for instance.

This is the official communication, of course, you can't expect anything else written and officially published in the media from a really huge company like VISA. They just can't start a communication like "we don't like cryptos, so we will do our best to slow them down, etc..." They have to be really cautious with the communication, they have to prove every single word they use in the official announcements. I'm curious how long will the remaining crypto related debit card issuers last on the market....

If VISA publicly claims that Wave Crest Holdings is in breach of contract, and they are not, VISA would be sued to oblivion

i'm surprised that virtually all the providers of non-US cards (bitpay, bitwala, cryptopay, wirex, tenX) were using wavecrest to issue them. i guess this is another example where market concentration and lack of competition hurts consumers.


i don't see how using a prepaid card (funded by BTC or not) fundamentally changes anything. in order to issue the card to you, this is the kind of information required:


this business definitely requires money transmission licenses and KYC procedures. any business issuing cards without enforcing them is likely to get shut down or removed from major payment networks like wavecrest was. this information is more than enough to get your prepaid accounts locked down if the courts come knocking on the issuer's door.

A top official from the EU sees crypto as means to blithely launder money. There are three main reasons the European Central Bank does not like bitcoin: 3 Reasons The ECB Does Not Like Bitcoin - The Cryptocurrency Market Is Growing Exponentially, yet Europe Remains Sceptical (https://bitrazzi.com/3-reasons-ecb-not-like-bitcoin/)

• so called threat to financial stability
• no backing
• need for a VAT

It was obvious to me and many people around the forum that coins that offered cards as their business model could not survive for long, I always wondered why they needed a coin at all an now we are seeing the truth, those coins are going to crash if they are not crashing already.

Since Visa has other approved programs, I guess the prepaid debit card providers should have a way to solve this problem. Meanwhile Centra Card is not affected since it use MasterCard, those affected can try ordering card from them.