On February 16, BitPay confirmed that it has partnered with Apple Pay to support Bitcoin and other digital assets. The self-professed ‘world’s largest provider for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services’ revealed that BitPay Prepaid MasterCard holders can now link their cards to iPhone’s Apple Wallets.
In that context, with the BitPay Prepaid Mastercard installed in an Apple Wallet, the users will freely and readily spend the funds with Apple Pay. This expansion of connectivity to Apple Wallet infrastructure will enable new users to access their BitPay ‘Virtual cards’ while they wait for new plastic cards.
Although new issuing takes a few days, new users can now add their virtual BitPay Mastercard to their Apple Wallet via BitPay Wallet ‘and start spending immediately.’ The BitPay wallet app supports Bitcoin as well as other types of blockchain-powered cryptocurrencies. Four dollar-pegged stablecoins (USDC, BUSD, PAX, and GUSD) are supported in addition to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether.
For any individual to include a BitPay card to the Apple Wallet they must have the latest app version. BitPay has already unleashed the latest version 12.1.0, which is now available in the Apple Store. Moreover, users will need to have the latest version of iOS and Apple Wallet. The BitPay Card is the part that will appear in the Apple Wallet when all is set up.
During an announcement on Monday, BitPay highlighted that it has plans to expand its support to other forms of digital payments before the end of this year. Both Google Pay and Samsung Pay are scheduled to integrate with BitPay before the end of Q1 2021.
Although the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) is increasingly growing, the crypto industry continues to face criticism from the Federal Governments and gold enthusiasts. On January 22, 2020, the then high-profile candidate for the US Treasury Secretary suggested ‘Curtailing’ the crypto sector. Janet Yellen was sworn in as the 78th US Secretary of Treasury of the US on January 26, 2021.
In the meantime, the leading electric car manufacturer Tesla sunk $1.5 billion into Bitcoin earlier this month. Recently, another major investment came into the crypto market with Jay-Z joining the Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, in investing 500 BTC into an endowment.
