Mastercard and crypto exchange Binance are ending their partnership for crypto cards. According to the payment giant, the decision will affect all four of Mastercard’s co-branded crypto card programs with Binance in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Bahrain.
Partnership Between Mastercard and Binance Ending
Mastercard and cryptocurrency exchange Binance are ending their partnership for crypto cards, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing an emailed statement by a Mastercard spokesperson.
The decision will affect all four of Mastercard’s co-branded crypto card programs with Binance in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Bahrain, starting Sept. 22, the news outlet conveyed, adding that the spokesperson declined to provide a reason for the partnership termination.
Binance’s customer support team similarly explained on social media platform X:
The Binance Card will no longer be available to users in Latin America and the Middle East.
“The product, like most debit cards, has been utilized by Binance’s users to pay for basic daily expenses but in this case, the cards are funded with crypto assets. Only a tiny portion of our users (less than 1% of users in the markets mentioned) are impacted by this,” Binance detailed. “Users of this product will have until September 21, 2023, when the card will no longer be available for use.”
Commenting on the September deadline, the spokesperson noted: “This provides cardholders with a wind-down period to convert any holdings in their Binance wallet … There is no impact on any other crypto card program.”
The decision by Mastercard to terminate its partnership with Binance came as the crypto exchange faces several legal battles with regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The SEC filed 13 charges against Binance entities and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in June. The CFTC charged Binance entities and CZ in March with “willful evasion of federal law and operating an illegal digital asset derivatives exchange.”
Earlier this month, Zhao revealed that the number of registered users on the Binance platform has hit 150 million.
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