A spokeswoman for Mastercard stated via email on Thursday (August 24) that the company and the cryptocurrency exchange Binance will discontinue their four crypto card programs in the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Bahrain as of September 22.
The official website for Mastercard also includes a list of the company’s agreements with cryptocurrency exchanges like Gemini. According to the representative for Mastercard, this decision will not have any effect on any of the company’s other crypto card programs. Users have the ability to make payments in conventional currencies using the Binance cards, which are funded by the bitcoin holdings they have on the exchange.
Binance is up against a number of legal and regulatory obstacles. In June, authorities in the United States filed a lawsuit against a cryptocurrency exchange and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, alleging that the company was engaged in “web of deception” activities. Binance has made it clear that it intends to defend itself in a “vigorous” manner.
A spokeswoman for Mastercard declined to comment on why the Binance program was being discontinued or who was responsible for making the decision. In an interview in April with Reuters, Raj Dhamodharan, the head of crypto and blockchain for Mastercard, stated that the company was looking to expand its number of relationships with cryptocurrency companies. However, he did say that any card program “goes through full due diligence” and is regularly checked. He declined to comment on Binance in particular, but he did say that.
A comment request was emailed to Binance, but there was no immediate response from the company. A statement was posted earlier on Thursday by the exchange’s customer support account on X, which was formerly known as Twitter. The statement stated that the Binance Card “will no longer be available to users in Latin America and the Middle East.”
