U.S.-based digital money platform Uphold plans to roll out the world's first, multi-asset, crypto-enabled debit card across the U.K. and Europe in April following its acquisition of Optimus Cards UK Ltd., a leading debit and credit card issuer in the regions.
The move comes almost a year after Uphold launched a similar card for customers in the U.S. in a partnership with Mastercard, Inc. in March 2020. Uphold added more than 2 million customers and grew reserve assets to more than $1 billion.
The card is available as a physical and virtual debit card. Uphold account holder can toggle between more than 100 assets seamlessly within the Uphold Card App, as well as tap to spend using their virtual card.
The card allows anyone to spend crypto, national currencies like USD or GBP, cryptocurrency like bitcoin or XRP, gold, and other precious metals at nearly 50 million merchants. Users can also withdraw their assets in cash at any Mastercard network ATM worldwide with zero foreign transaction fees.
U.K.-based Optimus acts as a primary card issuer, including FX multi-currency, and payments facilitator and is an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The Uphold cards will be issued through Optimus and will be a combination of Uphold's unique multi-asset wallet and Optimus's card platform.
Optimus currently serves customers in the fintech and Credit Union sectors offering a platform that supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, Open Banking, as well as contactless and virtual cards, IBANs, UK sort-code and accounts, plus 'cardless' cash withdrawal.
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