- 6 January 2018
- Posted by: btcbros12
- Categories: Articles, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Finance & accounting, Future Finance
If you haven’t already heard the news Visa has been in the crypto headlines again over the last 48 hours, with it being said that they have withdrawn support for dozens of crypto cards in Europe. Wirex, Cryptopay, TenX, Xapo and Bitpay are amongst the affected.
Each company has released statements to its users and followers, citing that the services behind their cards would be cut with immediate affect. Each company has also said that the company responsible for handling their pre-paid card arrangements with Visa ended the services suddenly without prior warning.
The event has left hundreds of thousands of crypto card customers without the means of easy Bitcoin conversion to cash.
So who is the company behind the disruption?
Wavecrest Holding Ltd, is a Gibraltar based payments solution company, with whom Visa ended their agreement to provide Bitcoin/Fiat conversions via the cards.
Wavecrest had issued the companies affected with an email stating that Visa had ordered them to cease service on the cards.
Visa have said the decision was made due to “continued non-compliance with our operating rules”, of which we are yet to discover how, or if these were in fact breached.
They also went on to confirm that their other cryptocurrency/fiat conversion services are working as normal.
A spokesperson for Visa said: “Visa has other approved card programmes that use fiat funds converted from cryptocurrency in a number of jurisdictions. The termination of WaveCrest’s Visa membership does not affect these other products.”
So, following the decision, which Visa approved crypto cards still work?
See the list below to find out a few that are not affected by the move:
This morning crypto card provider Wirex updated their clients with news that any fiat (USD, GBP, EUR) currency balance held on their Wavecrest backed cards could be converted back to their Bitcoin wallets. Other providers are said to be employing similar tactics to ensure the safety of customer funds.