Bitcoin (BTC) wallet and payment platform Strike has partnered with Checkout.com to enable debit-card-based Bitcoin purchases in over 65 countries. The collaboration addresses one of the core issues plaguing major crypto providers today: swapping funds between digital and fiat currencies.
Speaking to Fortune, Strike CEO Jack Mallers said that Checkout.com provides a card network gateway, brokering relationships with the likes of Visa and Mastercard. Checkout.com itself does not convert users’ dollars into Bitcoin, but opens one more pathway for interested investors to buy the digital currency.
Strike leverages Bitcoin’s lightning network to let users make instant and free cross-border fiat currency payments to anyone worldwide. It also functions as a Bitcoin onramp, letting users buy and sell the currency. This makes Strike the “Bitcoin company of the earth,” using global payments as a core feature.
Global users can now buy Bitcoin with a debit card in over 36 countries, with rollouts to over 65 countries on the way. Additionally, Strike’s Send Globally technology allows users to send money to people in other nations, such as Kenya, with funds automatically converted to the recipient’s local currency in their bank or mobile money account.
Strike also announced a partnership with Bitrefill, a company letting customers purchase various real-world items – such as gift cards – using Bitcoin. This makes it easy for users to purchase everyday items over Lightning, regardless of if they’re holding fiat, USDT, or Bitcoin.
At the 2022 Bitcoin Conference, Strike announced that they would partner with Blackhawk and NCR to let people use BTC to purchase items at major retailers using BTC directly from their personal wallets. However, technical complications caused this service to be delayed.
