Union Pay – a Chinese financial services firm – has joined hands with Danal, a Korean payment provider, to establish and introduce a new digital currency-based credit card that allows users to pay for goods and services with crypto.
Union Pay Looks to Allow Consumers to Pay with Crypto
The idea of issuing crypto credit and debit cards has been rather popular for some time, now. Recently, the exchange Coinbase – situated on the west coast of the United States – has stated that it will be issuing a new bitcoin debit card that will allow users to transfer crypto from attached accounts into USD so that they can pay for items with millions of participating retailers.
Union Pay – which is often dubbed China’s version of both Mastercard and Visa – says that the card should be available to consumer no later than the end of 2020. The card will also be accessible through a platform known as Pay Coin, which is the virtual asset wallet of Danal. The card can be utilized by traders at approximately 30 million separate stores and retailers across the globe.
In addition, users in mainland China will also be allowed to utilize the card, according Danal. The card is set to support both fiat currencies and Pay Coin alike. At the time of writing, Pay Coin boasts more than 76,000 users and is listed on many exchanges throughout the world including Liquid, Huobi Korea and Up Bit, to name a few.
Pay Coin is still relatively young, having been released by Danal in the year 2019. The platform is designed to lessen wait times for digital transactions and provide users with lower fees. Park Sang-Man – the CEO of Danal – stated in a recent interview:
The prepaid card service will eliminate the inconvenience of foreign exchange when people travel overseas and alleviate their concerns about credit card theft. Danal is on the way to making its service accessible globally.
China’s Latest Crypto Behaviors
The status of Union Pay is huge considering China has taken on a very anti-crypto attitude over the past few years. The country has simmered down on most crypto activity including initial coin offerings (ICOs), which it has banned alongside several forms of digital trading. Thus, the card is likely to be used mostly by outside or foreign parties who can now explore various payment options in the Chinese market.
China is also making headway in the crypto space with the digitization of the yuan, the country’s national fiat currency. There have been many concerns as of late regarding what the nation plans to do with this new asset, though it has been said that the currency is not going to be used to spy on people’s spending habits or for speculation, as it is primarily designed to be a payment currency much likes its traditional fiat self.
