Avalanche Foundation Launches Visa Crypto Card

The Avalanche Foundation has introduced a new cryptocurrency card with Visa, which allows users to spend their crypto seamlessly at payment points.

Announced on Tuesday, the Avalanche Card will support Circle's USD Coin (USDC), Wrapped AVAX (wAVAX), BENQI Liquid Staked AVAX (sAVAX), and other cryptocurrencies.

According to the Avalanche Card website, the card will be available in both physical and virtual forms and can be used “wherever Visa is accepted.”

The card is linked to a “self-custody wallet and unique address per asset,” and while the card is a credit card rather than debit card, user activity is “not reported to the credit bureaus.” Additionally, there are no spending fees.

Rain Liquidity, a financial technology services provider, serves as the card issuer. Avalanche emphasises that neither Avalanche nor Rain Liquidity are banks, and the card is not insured by the FDIC.

“Avalanche Card and Rain Financial are not asset custodians," Avalanche said on the Avalanche Card website. "The assets securing your Avalanche Card account are owned and custodied by you. The value of any cryptocurrency, including digital assets pegged to fiat currency, commodities, or any other asset, may go to zero."

The Avalanche Card will initially be available to residents of Latin America and the Caribbean. Residents or citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Russia, North Korea, Syria, Iran, and certain regions in Ukraine are ineligible.

Earlier this month,  the Avalanche Foundation announced a deal to repurchase 1.97 million AVAX tokens from Terraform Labs' bankrupt estate.

Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) purchased $100 million worth of Avalanche's AVAX tokens to strengthen its reserves back in April 2022, one month before the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.