According to CEO of Ripio CEO Sebastian Serrano, Latin American crypto firm Ripio has begun distributing a prepaid debit card in Brazil that supports cryptocurrency payments and offers cashback benefits in the form of Bitcoin (BTC).
According to the company, it plans to distribute 250,000 cards created in collaboration with Visa (V) — alongside the already existing digital version of the card — by the end of the year and makes them available to the country’s one million users.
The company stated the Brazillian reals and any of the 28 cryptocurrencies listed on Ripio’s platform can be used for payment with the prepaid card. Ripio, based on Serrano’s statement, is considering adding incentives in cryptocurrencies other than BTC.
Serrano said the firm also intends to release the card in Argentina later this year and is not ruled out doing the same way other companies did in their country like Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, and Mexico.
Ripio has recently been a part of the development of Mercado Coin, a cryptocurrency released last week by Latin America’s largest e-commerce company by market cap, Mercado Libre (MELI).
In addition, Ripio offers Mercado Coin a custody and trading service in Marcado Pago, the digital wallet of Mercado Libre.
Serrano stated this is an initial step of the tokenization project and the first significant firm in Latin America to integrate crypto.
Serrano, however, added that they believe this will become increasingly widespread — remarking that they wish to become catalysts for the future.
With 3.8 million users, the Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin dominates the regional market.
However, fintech players Mercado Libre and Nubank, along with another Latin American crypto exchange Bitso all announced that they had each exceeded one million crypto users in the country.
