Exploring the End of Mastercard and Binance’s Crypto Card Partnership in Latin America

Mastercard and Binance Ending Crypto Card Partnership

Global payments giant Mastercard has announced that its cryptocurrency card partnership with the Binance crypto exchange will be ending next month, a spokesperson for the firm told Cointelegraph on Aug. 25.

The Mastercard and Binance prepaid crypto card, which allowed users to make payments in local fiat currencies funded by their crypto holdings on the exchange, will be discontinued in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia starting Sept. 22.

The wind-down period will give cardholders the chance to convert any holdings in their Binance wallets. Although Mastercard did not reveal the reason for the change, Bloomberg and other online reports suggest that it is due to increased regulatory scrutiny of the crypto exchange.

Binance and Mastercard End Partnership

It has been approximately one year since Binance and Mastercard first joined forces to launch a prepaid card for the citizens of Argentina. In early 2023, the two companies extended their collaboration by introducing another prepaid crypto card to Latin America.

The termination of the partnership appears to be a result of the heightened regulatory scrutiny that Binance is currently facing. As reported earlier, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Binance and its CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao for allegedly breaching US securities laws. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also filed a lawsuit against Binance for not registering with the derivatives regulator. Furthermore, Binance is being investigated by the US Department of Justice for allowing Russians to use the exchange in violation of US sanctions.

Visa and Mastercard Distance from Binance

The new report reveals that Mastercard is not the only firm that has been removing itself from Binance due to its global regulatory issues. In July, Visa also stopped issuing new co-branded cards with Binance in Europe, according to Binance.

Neither Visa nor Binance responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

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