The new card will be backed by Mastercard, but faces steep competition from similar products offered by centralized exchanges.
Wallet provider MetaMask is launching a crypto payments card that will allow users to spend self-custodied funds, offering crypto holders additional ways to use their tokens.
The new card is backed by Mastercard and is being developed in partnership with CompoSecure and Baanx, according to the company. The product uses smart contracts to execute the IRL (In Real Life) transactions, with a processing speed under five seconds. It operates on the Linea network, a layer-2 scaling solution on Ethereum.
The companies marketed the self-custodied crypto card as an alternative to the potential risks associated with centralized exchanges. In February, the second-largest crypto exchange by volume, Bybit, was hacked for $1.4 billion, an event that sparked widespread consternation in the crypto space.
With the launch of its card, MetaMask is entering a competitive segment of the cryptocurrency market. Major exchanges like Binance, Bybit, Coinbase, and Crypto.com already offer crypto debit cards, some of which feature “crypto-back” rewards that allow users to earn digital assets on their purchases.
