BitPay dominates US crypto-debit card market but Wirex now poses a serious threat
|Despite impressive growth through 2017, the one million-strong user base of Bitpay is at risk of mass migration after Wirex announced its own US crypto card. This is bad news for the Atlanta-based Bitpay, a mainstay of American cryptocurrency payment services, as it also prepares to switch off access for European users by the end of month. With the only fully functional debit card in Europe, Wirex’s American launch is a real threat to BitPay hegemony in North America; it boasts up to two million users of its own and facilitates several popular coins with plans to add more. BitPay supports just Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash at present.
Users who sign up for a Wirex Visa prepaid card are able to use BTC, XRP, Ethereum or Litecoin for their daily spending so long as the merchant accepts Visa payments. It also proves a more flexible app, as users are able to move their crypto to a USD balance and vice versa. Once crypto is exchanged for fiat currency on BitPay, however, it cannot be traded back for coin.
Features and functions may not matter…Wirex has XRP
While government administrations wonder what it means to have most Bitcoin and Ether mining take place in China, it might be the US prerogative to support a project that contends with Chinese dominance in the crypto-sphere. This is just one of several benefits Wirex enjoys by supporting Ripple and they know it too, as evidenced by a recent Twitter poll by the company which indicated a strong preference for the currency. XRP is increasingly seen as a coin ready to take the US market as soon as conditions are right.
BitPay to focus more on business, Asian markets
One of the lauded functions on BitPay has been its tools for retail, ecommerce and billing which enables businesses to take rapid payment from anywhere in the world. Should they face losing the retail market share to Wirex, this may be where resources are diverted. It seems like things are headed in that direction anyway after it added the Circle coin and the Gemini dollar - two stablecoins which should retain consistent value - as settlement options for BitPay business merchants.
Meanwhile, last year’s partnership with AsiaPay indicated the trend: BitPay sees Asia as a market with potential for the most growth in Bitcoin payments through its service. At the end of last year, it said that the Asia-Pacific region had grown to account for a significant portion of total monthly transactions with BitPay.
For BitPay, it depends on the strength of Bitcoin
This much is self-evident - the BitPay crypto-debit card only supports Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash - and, while not necessarily a forecast of doom and gloom, you would be hard-pressed to find someone outside of these two communities who’d put money on just those two coins. Wirex has an effective blanket approach which it hopes will scoop up the broader crypto community into using its payment service. Such an approach appears to work and seems likely to help displace BitPay as top dog in the US crypto-debit card market. Right now at least, Wirex simply looks like the better product and, as a result, is poised to take the US by storm.
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