Gemini, the Winklevoss brothers’ exchange, announced that it will launch a bitcoin credit card in the middle of the year, with Mastercard as a partner.
Today, April 27, Gemini published the news about this new credit card that offers a rewards program that pays in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, up to 3% of the purchases made.
WebBank will be the issuer of the Gemini card and will only be available throughout the United States. The card will be free of annual fee, with access from the application and customer service every day of the year. Those interested can sign up now on the waiting list.
The rewards range from 3% for payments in restaurants, 2% in the pantry and 1% in other purchases. According to Gemini, the user can choose to receive rewards in any of the more than 30 cryptocurrencies that this exchange trades. These assets include ether (ETH), cardano (ADA), dogecoin (DOGE), and Ripple’s XRP.
The rewards will appear instantly and can be transferred directly to Gemini Earn, a service offered by this company that allows you to obtain returns of up to 7.4% annual return for keeping cryptocurrencies on deposit.
Noah Perlman, Gemini’s COO, shared with a medium that “the company felt that hotel points, airline miles and cash-back rewards were losing their face during the pandemic.” He went on to say that now people will be able to earn bitcoin with their purchases instead of points.
This is not the first time that Mastercard has partnered with cryptocurrency payment companies. Debit cards like Wirex and BitPay were already partners with the financial services giant.
Mastercard, closer to including bitcoin in its network
So far, in all cases, Mastercard partner companies are responsible for exchanging dollars for cryptocurrencies. However, the multinational has officially communicated its intentions to venture into the world of digital assets.
“We are preparing right now for the future of cryptocurrencies and payments, announcing that this year Mastercard will begin to support select cryptocurrencies directly on our network,” they revealed in February 2021.
The words of Mastercard have been put into action in a forceful way and CriptoNoticias has continued its participation with other companies, including with the Central Bank of the Bahamas, which issues a digital currency that is legal tender in that nation.
