Today, cryptocurrency exchange Gemini announced its plans to launch Gemini Credit Card, which will reward users with bitcoin back for purchases, later this year.
The launch announcement follows Gemini’s acquisition of Blockrize, a fintech company that had already been working on such a product. Gemini has started a waitlist for early access to the credit card that will also include Blockrize’s more than 10,000 waitlist members.
“By combining Gemini’s simple, reliable and safe platform with Blockrize’s rewards program, card holders will be able to seamlessly earn up to 3 percent back in bitcoin, or other cryptos, on every purchase they make with the Gemini Credit Card,” according to a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine.
The card will be available to U.S. residents in every state and Gemini expects it to be useable wherever “major cards are accepted.” Bitcoin rewards will be automatically deposited into a user’s Gemini account.
“I often get asked when is the right time to buy bitcoin,” Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini, told Bitcoin Magazine in an interview. “The Gemini Credit Card answers this question by simply transforming your existing spending behavior into investing behavior. You don’t have to worry about timing the market, you can go about your life and rest easy knowing that you are stacking sats every time you swipe your Gemini Credit Card.”
As a product that makes it seamless for users to acquire BTC, Winklevoss sees the card as another milestone in the asset’s ongoing ascendance among retail investors.
“We believe the Gemini Credit Card will be a major mainstream moment for Bitcoin,” he said. “There are more people in the world who have credit cards than there are people who own bitcoin directly. The Gemini Credit Card can bring bitcoin to this larger audience without asking them to change their behavior. Instead of earning airline miles, points or some other gimmicky rewards, people can instead earn bitcoin and secure their future. The Gemini Credit Card turns spending into the constructive behavior of investing.”
