BitPay reveals new U.S.-wide bitcoin debit card service

At a demonstration at the Consensus 2016 conference in New York, BitPay revealed a new bitcoin debit card that is available in all 50 U.S. states.

Issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank, the debit card allows clients to load bitcoin, make payments at Visa POS systems and take out cash through Visa ATMs, reported CoinDesk, which is running the two-day Consensus conference.

“We believe that if you can use bitcoin in more ways it makes bitcoin more valuable,” said BitPay CEO Stephen Pair at the conference, as reported by CoinDesk.

According to BitPay’s website, users can load dollars onto their BitPay card using any bitcoin wallet and spend their funds within seconds. They can shop with the card online or in physical stores that accept Visa debit cards. Users can also monitor and add to their card balance through the mobile device.

According to the website, users can order a card for $9.95 using bitcoin as a payment method. Once the card arrives in the mail, after seven to 10 business days, the user must activate the card by calling the 1-800 number listed on a sticker on the front of the card. From there on the user can load up the card with bitcoin and spend the funds or withdraw cash from an ATM.

With respect to the fees connected to the debit card, Pair said fees would be linked to particular actions.

“There’s a fee to start the card and for accessing at ATM,” he said, as reported by CoinDesk. “We intentionally wanted to make loading bitcoin free of charged.”

The announcement follows Coinbase’s news last week that it expanded its bitcoin debit card service to every U.S. state. CEX.IO, a UK-based cryptocurrency exchange, also announced last week instant withdrawals of fiat funds to MasterCard and Visa for its clients.

Image via the Press page of BitPay’s website