MasterCard (NYSE: MA) will follow Visa (NYSE: V) to suspend all crypto debit cards outside the European Economic Area (EEA), The Merkle reports.
All existing cards belonging to people outside the EEA will remain active for another 90 days. After that time, MasterCard will block said cards automatically. The move will affect cryptocurrency startups looking to issue such cards on a global scale.
Any remaining funds on one’s card must either be spent or withdrawn through the card issuer before that time.
The decision is expected to force a lot of people to start using native cryptocurrency wallets.
For customers within the European Economic Area, nothing will change for the time being. Moreover, Europeans can still take their cards outside the EEA and spend money as they would otherwise.
It will become impossible to register for such cards as a non-EEA citizen from now on.