Early access to the brand-new Wirex Travelcards empowering borderless spending in crypto* & traditional currency is here!

Countries where early access will be available are Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines.

For full details please go to our Wirexapp website.

We launched early access in selected APAC countries today for our travel card. So to those in...
🇸🇬Singapore
🇹🇼 Taiwan
🇭🇰HongKong
🇰🇷SouthKorea
🇦🇺Australia
🇳🇿NewZealand
🇹🇭Thailand
🇵🇭Philippines

you can download and verify today.

Also as a token of our appreciation for your continued support, the first 2000 people to order and activate their Wirex Travelcards will exclusively receive 20 Nano.

Due to compliance the new Wirex card service does not do instant conversion from bitcoin when you use it, that is, it's not a 'bitcoin debit card'. The new service is a real VISA Debit Card which holds funds in a Currency Account.

We invited Wirex users to submit questions for Pavel Matveev, Co-Founder of Wirex, to respond to on camera, including:

• Are the new cards 'prepaid' or real debit cards?
• Will the WirexApp do the conversion from bitcoin to cash automatically?
• What procedures/processes are different with the new card issuer to prevent (Visa/Mastercard) from revoking the operating licence as they did with Wavecrest?
• What will the card and account limits be?
• Why do you partner with a bank licensed in the UK, considering we are about one year away from brexit?
• What measures are taken to allow customers in the EU to do free euro bank transfers to other accounts?
• What countries will the Wirex card be available in and what countries will we be able to use it in?
• Is it going to be linked to the VISA or Mastercard worldwide network?
• Does Brexit provide an opportunity for Britain to pioneer crypto regulations?
• Could a friendly environment for crypto investors in the UK be the answer to the post-Brexit economic crisis?
• How do you protect you application and wallet from cyber crooks who want to steal crypto coins?

Pavel covered a lot of other details too.

Here’s the full interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suXVEfwYlS8&t=929s

Check out the latest entries on the Wirex blog.

And of course, if you’re in the UK, let us have your feedback on the new Currency Accounts and Debit Cards.

Here’s the latest update on when cards will be available outside of the UK  https://wirexapp.com/wirex-europe-can-expect-accounts/

Plastic cards will be delivered to verified users at no charge during our launch phase. Be first-in-line by verifying your account today.

If you want a Crypto Wallet that will allow you to:

Instantly buy, store and exchange your Bitcoin.

Send Bitcoin instantly with no transaction fees to other Wirex Wallets.

Allow you to instantly convert your Bitcoin (and 50 other CryptoCurrencies) to £ $ or Eur loaded on a pre-paid debit card (you can get a virtual one for free) & spend them anywhere that accepts Visa.

And allows you to instantly buy Bitcoin in app, with a credit or debit card; with cheaper rates than the biggest Bitcoin exchange?

And also you offer a community forum for people to ask industry experts questions and conversate on hot Crypto topics. Wirex Community

Then you need to check out why over 900,000 use Wirex


https://wirexapp.com/upgrade-new-currency-account-cards/

Hi Winstar, our new currnency accounts can be topped up with both cryptos and fiat, and will allow you to be paid direcly in your current accounts with fiat. With your account comes a free virtual debit card to satisfy your online shopping needs. Feel free to message us if you have any more questions!

Thank you for your feedback Winstar78.

While our objetive is to increase the adoption rate of cryptos, we agree that there is a demand to get people interested in making the transition between fiat and crypto as seamless as possible whilst keeping the costs of these exchanges as competitive as possible. We feel that the easier it is to transition between fiat, the more people will open up to cryptos. Our new products will supply this demand so we are working tirelessly and as fast as we can to ensure these seamless transactions!

Hi Bluesky2100,

Thanks for your interest in our new finance service. While we don't have an official release date yet, we plan to release these new finance features before the end of Q1 this year.

If you want to be notified when the new services become live, feel free to sign up to the waiting list found here: https://wirexapp.com/wirex-bank-accounts-almost/

Hi ETFbitcoin, thank you for your feedback. While there are many altcoins that allow for minimal fee transactions and the lightning network on bitcoin has recently been implemented, we are offering a more user friendly experience for those who either wants to store bitcoins with limited technical knowledge on how to do so, or for people who are comfortable with their methods of storage but want a solution that allows them to spend bitcoins in a similar way you would spend FIAT.  Also while all crypto card services has been suspended, we hope to be one of the first to implement a solution by opening up our own banking services that will allow for b2b and b2c transactions and greater spending limits on your crypto cards.

Hi there BTCforJoe,
We are terribly sorry your friend has had such difficult experiences with us. Although Visa banned all cryptocurrency activities through Wavecrest, this should not prevent your friend from withdrawing his bitcoins. Please get your friend to send us his support ticket privately and I will look into the matter myself.

Hi there Ridley69. Unfortunately due to compliance issues with Visa and Wavecrest. All WaveCrest accounts were suspended. As a result we where forced to suspend all card services. However, We are looking to be the first to implement a solution as we are going to launch new banking services that supports the use of Crypto's; starting in the UK, followed by launches in Europe, Asia, South and North America. If you want to know more information, feel free to visit https://wirexapp.com/wirex-bank-accounts-almost/

Hi there Sailthor. Unfortunately due to compliance issues with Visa and Wavecrest. All WaveCrest accounts were suspended. As a result we where forced to suspend all card services. However, We are looking to be the first to implement a solution as we are going to launch new banking services that supports the use of Crypto's; starting in the UK, followed by launches in Europe, Asia, South and North America. If you want to know more information, feel free to visit https://wirexapp.com/wirex-bank-accounts-almost/

Hi mobnepal
Thank you for showing your interest, We here at appreciate your support and share vision on using cryptocurrencies for payments across international borders:). We will be launching accross Europe very soon, and will be aiming to roll out throughout Asia very soon after. In the mean time you can still register your interest here at https://wirexapp.com/wirex-bank-accounts-almost/.

If you have any question, please don't hesitate to message us

Hi Pab,
Thank you for registering your interest.
We will continue to do our best to ensure that our exchange rates will remain as some of the most competitive you can find in the UK while continuing to simplify the use of bitcoin whilst still working in compliance with British Laws.
After we re-launch in the UK, We hope to launch our services in the EU soon after.
 
If you want to know more information about our upcoming banking service, please visit:
https://wirexapp.com/wirex-bank-accounts-almost/

If you have any more questions you want to ask, please don't hesitate to send us a message

Hi there digaran.
Thank you for your question about blockchain fees. The reason why you don't pay bockchain through Wirex to Wirex transactions is because the bitcoins are not moving out of our service. Therefore there is no transaction fees to pay when sending bitcoins from one Wirex wallet to another. However, it is important to note that this service is only available to Wirex customers.

Please send us a message if you have any more queries

Hi teddy5145,
Whilst the first Wirex bank account available will be based in the UK, we are planning launches for our services to more countries later this year. We appreciate your support and understanding of the situation (and we are excited to share the details with you too)!

Hi Legaulois. We aim to launch within the next couple weeks and plan to make an announcement about it very soon. We appreciate your understanding to why we wont be launching an ICO. We look foreward to providing you with a crypto-friendly banking service very soon.

It has recently come to our attention that a group on Telegram calling themselves 'Wirex ICO' are using our company brand to fraudulently promote a coin offering that is not affiliated with us in any way. WE ARE NOT LAUNCHING AN ICO. Our OFFICIAL channel is Wirex Channel is @wirexchat https://t.me/wirexchat. Stay safe out there on the interwebs!

Imagine…

A hybrid personal finance platform that bridges old world banking and new world crypto.

A solution that actually works in favour of Cryptocurrency mass adoption while many of us still depend in various ways on traditional FIAT money…

Yes, it includes Current accounts with debit cards (not prepaid cards)... AND multi-currency crypto wallets

— unified on one platform, manageable via desktop or mobile.

But why?

When the principle of Satoshi’s original post was against the credit bubbles and control of centralised banking:
https://imgur.com/a/udm3a

Centralised vs Decentralised:

Andreas Antonopoulos recently described a necessary return to centralised banking services using cross-chain payment rails to ensure crypto payments are kept low, while bitcoin itself serves as a storage of value. Making each individual their own ‘central bank’ in control of their own financial wellbeing and mastery, while tapping in to various global services as desired.

Giving people the ability to choose the level of privacy, autonomy, and access they want based on their own unique situation, and the current stage of global blockchain adoption.

(One example of Andreas discussing off-chain banking is at at 18:20 on https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=AecPrwqjbGw)

And Wirex is working hard to deliver on that vision of hybrid crypto-friendly banking services that position each individual as their own ‘central bank’.

Just a fantasy?

No, just a matter of time as blockchain projects develop over the next few years.

We believe crypto-friendly banking serves the 2018 market to encourage mass adoption.

Today, we’re excited to announce early details of an entirely new fully-integrated crypto finance solution that will be available in Q1:

Receive salary or any payments direct to your Wirex account

Exchange fiat into bitcoin (and top altcoins) at any time. High volume limits. No waiting time for bank transfers. No extra bank transfer fee

Cash out of crypto anytime to make fiat payments easier than ever before (starting with GBP UK bank transfers, international (IBAN) transfers, ATM withdrawal, or shop with Visa. EUR bank accounts with SEPA transfer, and other currency accounts to be added later)

The old approach used by crypto-card providers until today required a complex web of suppliers and integration partners:

https://imgur.com/a/XMXQf

Wirex has now simplified the ecosystem by building on top of the W-PAY blockchain platform developed for our business partners and liquidity providers:

https://imgur.com/a/Q3dsi

We fully understand that this solution is not built for everyone here as many of you are very well versed in the world of cryptos and know how to store and spend your crypto like a pro.

However, many others in the community share our belief in achieving mass adoption of cryptos.

In our minds, the best way to help implement mass adoption is to make navigating through the crypto space as user friendly as possible and we believe the best way to do this is to become the first global hybrid banking solution in support of cryptos.

Is this another ICO?

Thankfully no. Debit card and crypto banking ICOs have been done way too much recently.

As the very first bitcoin debit card and mobile app provider, building the systems and infrastructure for regulatory compliance and scalability has not been easy. Then our main card issuer had to restrict card accounts only to EU countries. Thousands of our customers around the world left without the convenience of our bitcoin-fundable debit card.

We had only just re-issued tens of thousands of cards at our expense due to a required change from MasterCard to VISA when new restrictions of EU-only were given to us. With new licensing agreements still in process we could no longer serve the majority of our cherished customers around the world — many who’ve been with us since the beginning!

Including noteable influencers in their own areas like Jeff Berwick (The Dollar Vigilante), Tijo (Arcane Bear), and more. Others who would prefer to remain anonymous. Due to new compliance, we can’t even call our old product a ‘bitcoin debit card’ as technically the card does not hold bitcoin, it holds fiat.

These same challenges are also being faced by our competitors, both the new ICO startups and the older copycat projects.

Today we believe we have achieved another industry first and important contribution to the community with the launch of a new Wirex Bank Account service, including Virtual Cards, and contactless plastic cards coming soon. Old style prepaid payment cards funded by bitcoin exchange is old technology.

We believe mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies begins in a big way by mid-2018. And we appreciate all of the support as well as the pushback and challenge from the super-intelligent and committed crypto community. As investors, consumers, service providers and enthusiasts, we are witness to the paradigm shift from old fiat banking systems to a new world of blockchain tech.

Zero-Fee Bitcoin Transfers:

Off-chain transfers between customer accounts allows us to drop blockchain fees to zero for you and any friends, family or contacts who use a Wirex account. Our off-chain Segwit bitcoin addresses give the best of both worlds.

Private Keys:

Of course, we recommend holding your own private keys for your main store of crypto. We recommend running your own node and keeping all 150 gigs of the blockchain stored on a hard drive, or using something like a Nano Ledger hardware wallet. Only keep crypto on an exchange or 3rd party wallet account because you are either trading it, spending it, or sending it (as noted above: Wirex off-chain SegWit enabled wallet allows customer to customer transfers at zero blockchain fee).

Practical Crypto-Friendly Banking For Today’s Market:

Wirex is focused on providing the most practical crypto-friendly banking features for everyday life. This means our products can be understood and used by people who are new to cryptocurrency. The passion at the Wirex office is all about bringing bitcoin to the mainstream. We want blockchain innovation to thrive. And hopefully you’ll enjoy the new bank account facilities too.

The new Wirex Account combines the familiarity of personal finance platforms with the extra solutions and opportunities of multiple cryptocurrency wallets.

Multi-Crypto Wallets:

New wallets will be integrated. Dash and Litecoin first. Then others. As fast as we can.

Combined on one single seamless platform, you can now open a crypto friendly bank account and benefit from our real debit cards with no top up fees.

Support from the crypto community helps us reach the masses who are brand new to bitcoin with new educational programs and practical crypto financial management.

But we're not here to make a quick $30 million from ICO. We’re here to build a comprehensive blockchain finance platform for all. We're here for the 1,000,000 customer registrations who have used our old bitcoin wallet and debit card services over the past few years. Many who were put off due to compliance issues beyond our control, but issues that we take to heart and feel a lot of empathy for. Remember, we are crypto enthusiasts too and want to enjoy the same products that you do!

Mainstream adoption means higher cryptocurrency prices (BTD and HODL), greater innovations, lower cost services, better digital asset management, and who knows… we may find opportunity to do a worthwhile ICO in the future for something bigger and better than just crypto cards.

Join the Bank Account waitlist today and you’ll be front-of-line when we get final approval to open accounts from the compliance and developer departments.

https://wirexapp.com/wirex-bank-accounts-almost/

Community Manager, Raphael Shalaby
let us know your thoughts!

Imagine…

A hybrid personal finance platform that bridges old world banking and new world crypto.

A solution that actually works in favour of Cryptocurrency mass adoption while many of us still depend in various ways on traditional FIAT money…

Yes, it includes REAL bank accounts... REAL debit cards (not prepaid cards)... AND multi-currency crypto wallets

— unified on one platform, manageable via desktop or mobile.

But why?

When the principle of Satoshi’s original post was against the credit bubbles and control of centralised banking:
https://imgur.com/a/udm3a

Centralised vs Decentralised:

Andreas Antonopoulos recently described a necessary return to centralised banking services using cross-chain payment rails to ensure crypto payments are kept low, while bitcoin itself serves as a storage of value. Making each individual their own ‘central bank’ in control of their own financial wellbeing and mastery, while tapping in to various global services as desired.

Giving people the ability to choose the level of privacy, autonomy, and access they want based on their own unique situation, and the current stage of global blockchain adoption.

(One example of Andreas discussing off-chain banking is at at 18:20 on https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=AecPrwqjbGw)

And Wirex is working hard to deliver on that vision of hybrid crypto-friendly banking services that position each individual as their own ‘central bank’.

Just a fantasy?

No, just a matter of time as blockchain projects develop over the next few years.

We believe crypto-friendly banking serves the 2018 market to encourage mass adoption.

Today, we’re excited to announce early details of an entirely new fully-integrated crypto finance solution that will be available in Q1:

Receive salary or any payments direct to your Wirex account

Exchange fiat into bitcoin (and top altcoins) at any time. High volume limits. No waiting time for bank transfers. No extra bank transfer fee

Cash out of crypto anytime to make fiat payments easier than ever before (starting with GBP UK bank transfers, international (IBAN) transfers, ATM withdrawal, or shop with Visa. EUR bank accounts with SEPA transfer, and other currency accounts to be added later)

The old approach used by crypto-card providers until today required a complex web of suppliers and integration partners:

https://imgur.com/a/XMXQf

Wirex has now simplified the ecosystem by building on top of the W-PAY blockchain platform developed for our business partners and liquidity providers:

https://imgur.com/a/Q3dsi

We fully understand that this solution is not built for everyone here as many of you are very well versed in the world of cryptos and know how to store and spend your crypto like a pro.

However, many others in the community share our belief in achieving mass adoption of cryptos.

In our minds, the best way to help implement mass adoption is to make navigating through the crypto space as user friendly as possible and we believe the best way to do this is to become the first global hybrid banking solution in support of cryptos.

Is this another ICO?

Thankfully no. Debit card and crypto banking ICOs have been done way too much recently.

As the very first bitcoin debit card and mobile app provider, building the systems and infrastructure for regulatory compliance and scalability has not been easy. Then our main card issuer had to restrict card accounts only to EU countries. Thousands of our customers around the world left without the convenience of our bitcoin-fundable debit card.

We had only just re-issued tens of thousands of cards at our expense due to a required change from MasterCard to VISA when new restrictions of EU-only were given to us. With new licensing agreements still in process we could no longer serve the majority of our cherished customers around the world — many who’ve been with us since the beginning!

Including noteable influencers in their own areas like Jeff Berwick (The Dollar Vigilante), Tijo (Arcane Bear), and more. Others who would prefer to remain anonymous. Due to new compliance, we can’t even call our old product a ‘bitcoin debit card’ as technically the card does not hold bitcoin, it holds fiat.

These same challenges are also being faced by our competitors, both the new ICO startups and the older copycat projects.

Today we believe we have achieved another industry first and important contribution to the community with the launch of a new Wirex Bank Account service, including Virtual Cards, and contactless plastic cards coming soon. Old style prepaid payment cards funded by bitcoin exchange is old technology.

We believe mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies begins in a big way by mid-2018. And we appreciate all of the support as well as the pushback and challenge from the super-intelligent and committed crypto community. As investors, consumers, service providers and enthusiasts, we are witness to the paradigm shift from old fiat banking systems to a new world of blockchain tech.

Zero-Fee Bitcoin Transfers:

Off-chain transfers between customer accounts allows us to drop blockchain fees to zero for you and any friends, family or contacts who use a Wirex account. Our off-chain Segwit bitcoin addresses give the best of both worlds.

Private Keys:

Of course, we recommend holding your own private keys for your main store of crypto. We recommend running your own node and keeping all 150 gigs of the blockchain stored on a hard drive, or using something like a Nano Ledger hardware wallet. Only keep crypto on an exchange or 3rd party wallet account because you are either trading it, spending it, or sending it (as noted above: Wirex off-chain SegWit enabled wallet allows customer to customer transfers at zero blockchain fee).

Practical Crypto-Friendly Banking For Today’s Market:

Wirex is focused on providing the most practical crypto-friendly banking features for everyday life. This means our products can be understood and used by people who are new to cryptocurrency. The passion at the Wirex office is all about bringing bitcoin to the mainstream. We want blockchain innovation to thrive. And hopefully you’ll enjoy the new bank account facilities too.

The new Wirex Account combines the familiarity of real banking services with the extra solutions and opportunities of multiple cryptocurrency wallets.

Multi-Crypto Wallets:

New wallets will be integrated. Dash and Litecoin first. Then others. As fast as we can.

Combined on one single seamless platform, you can now open a crypto friendly bank account and benefit from our real debit cards with no top up fees.

Support from the crypto community helps us reach the masses who are brand new to bitcoin with new educational programs and practical crypto financial management.

But we're not here to make a quick $30 million from ICO. We’re here to build a comprehensive blockchain finance platform for all. We're here for the 1,000,000 customer registrations who have used our old bitcoin wallet and debit card services over the past few years. Many who were put off due to compliance issues beyond our control, but issues that we take to heart and feel a lot of empathy for. Remember, we are crypto enthusiasts too and want to enjoy the same products that you do!

Mainstream adoption means higher cryptocurrency prices (BTD and HODL), greater innovations, lower cost services, better digital asset management, and who knows… we may find opportunity to do a worthwhile ICO in the future for something bigger and better than just crypto cards.

Join the Bank Account waitlist today and you’ll be front-of-line when we get final approval to open accounts from the compliance and developer departments.

https://wirexapp.com/wirex-bank-accounts-almost/

From The Community Manager, Raphael Shalaby.

Please let us know if a service like this would appeal to you? let us know your thoughts

The current transaction fees for bitcoin is high due to the large amount of transactions that remain unconfirmed (pending transactions). this is worsened as miners will typically go for the transactions with the highest fees to confirm and add to the next block and users will set their fees higher in order to get their transactions confirmed sooner.
As a result this creates a cycle of people increasing their transaction fees and miners only accepting the higher transaction fees. To remedy this, SegWit has been introduced to the bitcoin network in august and is still in the process of being adopted on a large scale.
Here at Wirex, we have implemented SegWit for all our users to try and reduce the miners fee by up to 60%. Also for our Wirex users, Transferring Bitcoin from one Wirex user to another is completely FREE (same goes for using our wallets).

If you want to learn more about us, feel free to visit our websites here:

if you are interested in what we have to offer, feel free to visit our website:

https://wirexapp.com/segwit-bitcoin-wallet-update/

https://wirexapp.com/bitcoin-money-transfers

https://wirexapp.com/wallet/