Wirecard digital currency services halted in UK

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Wirecard’s digital currency debit cards no longer work in the United Kingdom. This means that Crypto.com, TenX, and CryptoPay users with digital currency debit cards living in the country can no longer top up—or make transactions with—their Wirecard debit cards.

This is a result of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordering Wirecard to cease all of its regulated activities in the U.K.

“We have been working closely with Wirecard UK and other authorities over the past few days to take action that protects consumers,” according to the FCA’s official statement. “We are continuing to do this and on 26 June, we took additional measures to require the firm to cease all regulated activities in order to further protect customer money. This now means customers money cannot be accessed.”

When it was discovered that over $2 billion worth of money that Wirecard reported on their balance sheet did not exist, the FCA halted Wirecard’s activities in the U.K. to protect their citizens. As a result, Wirecard “is no longer permitted to conduct any regulated activities” in the U.K.

Wirecard’s digital currency Clients

Although Crypto.com, a client of Wirecard Card Solutions (WCS), originally said that they were unaffected by Wirecard’s accounting scandal, the move by the FCA has made Crypto.com’s, TenX’s, and CryptoPay’s digital currency debit cards unusable not just in the U.K., but also in the European Union.

“Following a notice regarding Wirecard UK by the FCA, we have just been requested to stop all activity on our card programs in the UK and Europe. Our customers in those two regions will not be able to top-up their cards or transact later today,” said Crypto.com in their official statement.

“Our customer funds are safe. Our team is working on processing credits to the crypto wallets equivalent to the fiat balances held on the cards. We expect this to be completed within 48 hours.”

WCS is the digital currency debit card service provider for Crypto.com, TenX, and CryptoPay. Through Wirecard’s service, digital currency debit card owners could add money to their prepaid debit cards, and use their digital currency debit cards anywhere that accepts Visa.

Now that Wirecard’s services have been halted in the U.K., it is no longer possible for digital currency debit card customers to use their cards or add money to them. Both Crypto.com and TenX have assured their customers that their funds are safe, and Crypto.com will be crediting all of their debit card customer’s accounts with the equivalent fiat balance. 

This morning, the FCA effectively shut down Wirecard UK, the issuer of our cards in Europe.

Our EU/UK cards will stop working today. All customers will receive 100% credit back to their crypto wallets within 48 hours.

We’re moving the card program to a new vendor. https://t.co/jEdxMuwipq

— Kris | Crypto.com (@kris) June 26, 2020

Crypto.com also says they will be shopping for a new digital currency debit card service provider.

What’s next for Wirecard?

Wirecard’s U.K. subsidiary, Wirecard UK, was the first to have government stipulations imposed on it. Wirecard also has subsidiaries in other continents and countries, such as North America, Singapore, and Turkey. No other government body has imposed on Wirecard’s subsidiaries operations yet, but it would not be surprising if other governments in which Wirecard runs a subsidiary follow in the steps of the U.K. as legal action against Wirecard and its former CEO continues to unfold.