Wirex has added PayPal as a funding option, allowing customers in 39 countries to purchase bitcoin and load their debit cards through the payment service. The London-based company, which rebranded fro
Wirex has added PayPal as a funding option, allowing customers in 39 countries to purchase bitcoin and load their debit cards through the payment service. The London-based company, which rebranded from E-Coin in February, is positioning itself as a hybrid banking platform combining blockchain technology with traditional finance.
Tim Frost, VP of marketing and business development at Wirex, said the move aligns with the company's strategy. "Providing users with the ability to buy bitcoins has always been a major goal," he told MiningPool. "This is one of our first parts of offering a hybrid banking platform. Besides offering the easiest way to use bitcoin through our debit cards we wanted to incorporate popular payment methods. Our next steps are offering mobile banking, and the ability to send money across borders for very low fees."
The PayPal feature is available in the Bahamas, Bahrain, Botswana, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Gibraltar, Honduras, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Moldova, Morocco, Mozambique, Oman, Philippines, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay. Wirex plans to expand this list to additional countries.
Wirex cannot ship physical debit cards to Botswana, Honduras, Mozambique, or Senegal. Customers in those countries can only access the virtual card, which functions the same way as the plastic card.
To use the feature, customers link their Wirex debit card to PayPal and request a withdrawal to that card. PayPal charges $5 per transaction, deducted from the withdrawal amount. Wirex charges no fee. The minimum withdrawal is $10, and transfers arrive within five to seven days.
Beyond PayPal, Wirex supports numerous other payment methods for loading funds. These include bank transfers, PaySafeCard, Alipay, Qiwi, and eKonto.
The February rebrand from E-Coin represents a broader shift in how the company presents itself. Wirex now markets itself as a personal banking solution built on blockchain technology, rather than as a bitcoin company. All E-Coin users and their accounts will move to the wirexapp.com platform when it launches in April.
E-Coin launched in early 2015. The service now serves over 100,000 users worldwide. The company has issued 15,000 debit cards and records monthly transaction volumes exceeding $2 million.
