Binance Users Can Now Pay for Crypto With Credit Cards

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by adjusted trading volume, has just made it easier for users to buy cryptocurrencies.

The exchange announced Thursday that it has partnered with Israel-based payments processing firm Simplex to enable purchases with Visa and MasterCard credit cards.

At launch, the exchange is supporting credit card purchase for bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and XRP. These can then be traded against up to 151 other tokens offered by the exchange.

“The crypto industry is still in its early stages and most of the world’s money is still in fiat, " said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. "Building fiat gateways is what we need now to grow the ecosystem, increase adoption and introduce crypto to more users."

According to Binance's terms and conditions pages, some countries are excluded from the service, including Iraq, Cuba Afghanistan and Libya. In the U.S., six states are also not supported, New York, Connecticut, Hawaii, Georgia, New Mexico and Washington.

Regarding fees, Simplex charges 3.5 percent of a transaction with a $10 minimum (flat fee). The daily limit is $20,000 per user, while the monthly max is $50,000 per user.

The firm adds: "Simplex payment processing is subject to local bank policies. Some issuer banks may decline charges on their own terms, regardless if users reside in a supported jurisdiction."

Founded in 2014, Simplex raised $7 million in a Series A funding round in February 2016. The investors included mining firms Bitmain and Cumberland Mining, crowdfunding platform FundersClub (which previously invested in Coinbase), among others. Back in November, the payments firm partnered with Singapore-based crypto exchange KuCoin to enable traders purchase bitcoin, ether and litecoin through credit and debit cards payments.

Binance earlier this month launched a new fiat-to-crypto exchange on the island of Jersey, a British self-governing dependency, enabling users to trade bitcoin and ethereum against the British pound and the euro. It also opened shop in Uganda last October , allowing crypto trading against the country's fiat currency, the Ugandan shilling.

Update (14:30 UTC, Jan. 31, 2019): This article was updated to add the Simplex credit card fees and excluded countries.

Credit cards image via Shutterstock