Mastercard Ends Co-Branded Card Programs With Binance

Payment giants Mastercard and Visa have both moved to end their crypto card partnerships with crypto exchange Binance.

Beginning September 22, Mastercard will end its crypto card offerings in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Bahrain, the firm’s senior vice president of communications Seth Eisen told Decrypt.

”The four pilot Binance co-branded Mastercard card programs will no longer be in use,” he said, adding that the September 22 deadline will “provide cardholders with a wind-down period to convert any holdings in their Binance wallet.”

The news comes just a year after Binance and Mastercard teamed up to launch a Bitcoin rewards card in Argentina.

Visa had reportedly already decided to end its crypto card partnership with Binance, stopping its co-branded cards in July. The companies joined to issue their own debit card in early 2021.

Binance announced yesterday that it was terminating its crypto card in Latin America and the Middle East.

“Only a tiny portion of our users (less than 1% of users in the markets mentioned) are impacted by this,” a Binance spokesperson told Decrypt. “Users of this product will have until September 21, 2023, when the card will no longer be available for use.”

Though Mastercard has moved to end its crypto card relationship with Binance, it will still offer other products and services across the crypto space.

Recently, it announced the formation of a working group with several crypto-native companies around a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot. These include Ripple, ConsenSys, and Fireblocks, among others.

“Together, we hope to accelerate the growth and adoption of digital asset technologies, as well as push the frontier of CBDC development on a global scale,” Fireblocks CBDC director Varun Paul told Decrypt of the news at that time.

Binance has been in the regulatory trenches as of late.

It has been slammed with lawsuits and increased supervision from authorities around the world. The SEC has charged the company with allegedly breaking securities laws, Brazil accused a Binance executive of running a pyramid scheme, and France is investigating the company for “aggravated money laundering.”