Blade Financial to Bring Debit Cards to Bitcoin Businesses
Today Blade Financial launched as the first B2B payment processing platform extending traditional debit card programs to bitcoin businesses. Blade makes it fast, easy, and compliant for digital currency companies to offer their customers a familiar way to spend bitcoin at millions of merchants worldwide.
Blade Financial CEO Ed Boyle previously served as General Manager of the Prepaid Card Business at American Express. In his role, Boyle was repeatedly creating and bringing to market industry firsts, from the first on-statement database marketing, to the first microchip-enabled corporate card, and the first open-loop/network-branded gift card.
Additionally, Blade is comprised of payments experts that have launched over 30 card programs worldwide with over $1 billion in annual transactions. The team has an average 15+ years of direct industry experience and comes from noteworthy institutions like AMEX and Total System Services (TSYS).
Despite support from major retailers like Dell, DISH Network and Overstock.com, bitcoin's annual transaction volume currently represents less than one percent of the $7.4 trillion in purchases processed through Visa and Mastercard last year. The reality is, consumers just don't have enough ways to spend their cryptocurrency.
"It's the age old chicken and egg problem: which comes first, merchants or consumers?" said Blade Financial Co-Founder and CEO Ed Boyle. "Blade takes away half of the equation by fully solving for the merchant side."
Today, 80% of people own debit cards. They provide a convenient way for consumers to make purchases, and remain the number one form of payment over cash or credit. Every bank outsources its card program, and now digital currency companies can offload merchant adoption to Blade so they can focus on their core business of acquiring and retaining users.
The Blade engine integrates digital currency companies with banks via a REST API to deploy white label and co-branded debit cards that work over existing global payment networks. Blade transactions are instant; the digital currency is debited real-time at the point of authorization and no pre-funding of fiat is required.
About Blade Financial
Blade Financial makes it fast, easy and compliant to launch your own bitcoin debit card. Founded in 2014 and based in New York, NY, the company is led by Ed Boyle, the former GM of Prepaid Cards at American Express and a 20+ year payments industry veteran. Blade is a Platform-as-a-Service offering digital currency businesses both white label and co-branded bank debit cards for their customers.
To learn more about Blade Financial, visit http://www.bladefinancial.com/
Related News
A new platform for payments processing is looking to capitalize on nascent demand for bitcoin-powered debit card solutions. Founded in February, Blade Financial is pitching its service to digital currency companies that want to offer debit card services to customers but lack the resources or capabilities to actually launch a product. Such offerings have proved problematic for some startups, and for Blade, this uneven track record is a big business opportunity. CoinDesk spoke with CEO Ed Boyle, who has previously served as general manager for American Express' prepaid cards unit. Boyle said....
Prepaid debit cards will become subjected to tightened regulations proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by October 2017. According to Lauren Saunders, the associate director of the National Consumer Law Center, the standard of regulation for prepaid debit cards will match that of bank accounts and bank-issued credit cards in terms of loss compensation, fee disclosure, and overdraft fees. Saunders announced: “The rules bring prepaid cards out of the shadows, with protections that in many ways are stronger than those for traditional bank accounts.” Newly implemented....
Today, ANX announced that they would be issuing the world’s first Bitcoin Debit Card, with shipping to start very soon. The Debit Cards will be available first to existing ANX Bitcoin Exchange customers who have already completed all verification steps. The development of Bitcoin Debit Cards has been ongoing for many months across several different competitors, and the community as a whole is eager to try out the different offerings. “We believe prepaid cards will play an integral role in a Bitcoin consumer’s day-to-day financial life,” said Ken Lo, Chief Executive Officer of ANX. “As a....
Hong Kong-based exchange ANX is introducing a reloadable debit card that can be used across the globe. ANX customers load their cards from bitcoin balances (effectively selling bitcoins to ANX) or from any of the 10 international currencies the firm currently supports. The stored currency on the cards, however, is always US dollars. The cards can then be used worldwide at any merchant that accepts debit cards and at regular ATMs to withdraw cash, though, again, all amounts will be debited in USD. ANX charges a 2.5% fee to load the cards, which is deducted from the deposited amount. There....
Bitcoin debit cards bring more usability and functionality to those looking to spend digital currency at millions of locations around the world. E-coin, one of the leading Bitcoin debit card providers, has rebranded to Wirex, giving the company a more professional appeal to stand out among a sea of competitors. The primary goal of companies such as Wirex....