Crypto card access doesn’t match global demand, Tangem says

What happened

Crypto card demand can be stronger where access is harder, Tangem says, as the company expands its self-custodial payment offering through Visa. On Wednesday, Tangem announced its first physical Visa card for in-store and online purchases and ATM withdrawals, with an initial release limited to 5,000 cards.

The company said users can fund the card directly from their self-custodial wallet and move funds back to the wallet if the card is suspended or closed. More than 40% of Tangem Pay payments come from Latin America and over 30% from the US, while physical card availability remains restricted in some markets, the Swiss crypto wallet provider told Cointelegraph.

“It is not simply a question of where people want crypto cards,” Andrey Ilinskiy, head of Tangem Pay, told Cointelegraph, adding: “It is where demand, regulation, banking infrastructure and card-issuing requirements happen to line up — and today, those maps do not always overlap.” “Self-custody removes one major boundary: there is no custodian standing between the user and their assets. But when those assets enter a regulated payment network, another set of boundaries appears,” Tangem said.

Key facts

• On Wednesday, Tangem — announced: its first physical Visa card for in-store and online purchases and ATM withdrawals, with an initial release limited to 5,000 cards