KuCoin adds credit cards to its platform

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KuCoin has partnered with Simplex, an Israel based payment processing company, to allow users to purchase crypto through credit cards.

According to the official announcement made on March 27, KuCoin, a Singapore based cryptocurrency exchange, has added the service to its assets page. Customers can use a variety of currencies including ETH, XRP, LTC, BTC and BCH.

In November last year, KuCoin closed its Series A funding round worth $20 million. It was led by IDG Capital, Neo Global Capital, and Matrix Partners. KuCoin explained that the funding was to be used to release KuCoin’s 2.0 platform.

Simplex, founded in 2014, has been considered to be a leading EU financial institution. It hopes to provide fraud-free payment to users around the world. Simplex’s platform is able to process credit card payments. The platform offers users a 100% guarantee in every transaction they make. Customers also get their funds back in case of a fraud chargeback. Simplex has several subsidiaries in the United States, Lithuania, and the UK.

Reportedly, Simplex has already provided its “fraud-free” payment processing services to other companies, such as the Litecoin Foundation, Shapeshift, Changelly and Xapo.

Last month, Binance began supporting debit and credit card payments. According to the announcement, the feature allows investors to pay for crypto using Mastercard and Visa through a partnership with Simplex.

Exchanges are adopting credit card payment options to draw more people to their platforms and the cryptocurrency market as a whole. Weeks later, Binance added credit card purchases in its official wallet, Trust.

While speaking to reporters, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao explained:

“As part of Binance’s larger mission to increase the adoption and mainstream accessibility of crypto, Binancians are now able to use Visa and MasterCard to buy…and start trading on Binance.com within minutes.”

In addition, Simplex CEO and co-founder Nimrod Lehavi had previously described credit cards as “a key factor in wider adoption of crypto in general.”

While exchanges are opening doors to credit cards, some retailers have decided to fully adopt crypto as means of payments, and drop credit cards. Krogen, retail grocery store, recently banned Visa payments from their 134 stores.