Stablecoins go beyond crypto experimentation and are part of a reliable financial infrastructure, OKX said, announcing the launch of a new debit card in Europe.
“Momentum is quickly gaining momentum,” Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, told CoinDesk. “Regulators are putting real safeguards in place, big banks are not only taking them seriously when it comes to payments and settlements, but are also participating in industry-wide European initiatives to become issuers, and everyday users are choosing faster and cheaper digital payments.”
European regulators have accelerated this momentum with the rollout of the European Crypto Asset Markets (MiCA) framework, which brings together stablecoin issuers and crypto service providers under a single bloc-wide regulatory regime.
Ghoos’ comments accompanied OKX’s announcement that it has rolled out a new crypto payment card in Europe, allowing users to spend stablecoins directly at merchants accepting Mastercard.
The OKX card connects self-custodial wallets to real-world payments, offering fee-free spending, although a 0.4% market spread is applied at the point of conversion, and crypto rewards.
Unlike most crypto cards that require manual conversions or preloading funds, the OKX card allows users to pay with stablecoins held in their wallet. Assets are only converted at the time of purchase. Users earn crypto rewards of up to 20% during a limited promotional period.
The card supports Tap-to-Pay functionality through mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay and can be used in more than 150 million locations worldwide. Designed to integrate with OKX’s onchain infrastructure, it avoids centralized custody and emphasizes user control. “We are making it easy for anyone in Europe to use crypto for real-world purchases, instantly, securely and transparently,” Ghoos concluded.
OKX issues the card through an approved European payment provider and operates in compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations. Christian Rau, head of Mastercard, called the expansion an effort to bring stablecoins “into the financial mainstream.”
Ghoos said he believes stablecoins will soon be widely adopted. “Early adopters may be crypto-natives, but over time we believe instant, low-cost global payments via stablecoins will become the default for everyone.”
