Binance to discontinue Visa debit card services in Europe

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that it would cease issuing and servicing the Visa debit card in the European Economic Area.

Physical or virtual Binance Visa cardholders will be able to use them until 20 December 2023. A replacement can be ordered until 6 December.

The changes also affect the cards of Ukrainian refugees. As an alternative, the company offers Binance Pay.

Binance Card was launched in the spring of 2020. It allowed users to make purchases in Bitcoin and BNB at 46 million points of sale in 200 countries. In September of that year, Binance Visa cards became available in Europe.

“Although Binance users worldwide have been using the Binance Visa debit card for everyday payments with crypto assets with pleasure, only about 1% of our users were affected by these changes,” said a Cointelegraph representative of the exchange.

In August, Bloomberg reported the termination of cooperation between Visa and Mastercard with Binance amid regulatory headwinds. In March, CFTC filed a civil suit against the platform. In June, charges against Binance and its head Changpeng Zhao were brought by the SEC.

In October, European users of the exchange gained the ability to deposit and withdraw funds in euros. This followed the withdrawal of this service in September by Paysafe, the former partner.

Bitget, Huobi, Bybit and Gate.io have issued their own crypto cards.