Bitcoin Exchange LVL Launches Mastercard Debit Card

Upstart cryptocurrency exchange LVL is launching pre-orders to get a Mastercard debit card connected to bitcoin and fiat accounts.

The card is among Mastercard's premium products and may be used anywhere globally, stated LVL CEO Chris Slaughter. Mastercard did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

"It took a couple of months to get [Mastercard] to be comfortable with it being connected to crypto," Slaughter said. "Convincing them that it was aligned with their premium brand was more involved because their view on crypto businesses is that they're transactional businesses, not member services businesses. ... We're a subscription service, which is comparable to having a superior card membership in Mastercard's eyes"

In November 2020, the company removed trading charges on its own platform in favor of a subscription-based support. Slaughter said he anticipates the debit card to create a"substantial part" of the firm's revenue.

On most trades, cash is held in"for benefit of" (FBO) accounts. Such reports are opened from the company's name and also have sub-accounts for users. In contrast, Slaughter said, LVL provides demand deposit accounts that are opened in the customer's name and can not be commanded by LVL.

LVL's back-end lender is Evolve Bank & Trust, a community bank based in West Memphis, Ark., the exchange accesses through San Francisco fintech firm Synapse. (Synapse offers APIs that enable other organizations to add bank services like checking account to their programs .)

"Other people want to do crypto-linked debit cards but [LVL] is the fastest to advertise with this," said Synapse CEO Sankaet Pathak. "One functionality that people constantly desire in the crypto area is exactly the same thing that happened with E-Trade and Schwab -- they want deposit capabilities, direct deposit and card issuance connected to their own accounts."

In recent months, companies like peer reviewed crypto market Paxful, electronic investment platform Bitpanda and Manhattan-based bank Quontic have launched or announced plans to launch debit cards connected to crypto accounts.

Last month, BlockFi announced plans to get a bitcoin (BTC, +2.39%) rewards credit card.

"A great deal of those debit cards which exist in the crypto ecosystem would be the kind that are oriented around this idea of spending your crypto, which at least clients at BlockFi aren't interested in doing," CEO Zack Prince told CoinDesk in a interview at that time.