MetaMask Launches Financial Card: Linking Cryptocurrency Wallets to Apple Pay
MetaMask Launches Financial Card: Linking Cryptocurrency Wallets to Apple Pay
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GM,
Now, a small number of MetaMask users in the EU and the UK can apply for a financial card to directly pay for everyday expenses using cryptocurrency. They can even add the card to their mobile wallets, allowing them to use Apple Pay or Google Pay—tools everyone is familiar with—to pay with crypto. This article discusses the significance of MetaMask launching a financial card and why I believe it’s giving the most useful tool to those who need it the least.
The original concept of cryptocurrency was for it to be used for payments.
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin with the white paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." Nakamoto envisioned a future where people would own their own cryptocurrency wallets and make direct payments to others using Bitcoin (BTC) on the Bitcoin system. Just like in 20101, when the hero of Bitcoin Pizza Day used 10,000 BTC to buy two large pizzas.
However, 16 years later, the way people use Bitcoin has strayed far from Nakamoto’s vision. Most people who buy BTC are not using it for payments; rather, it's more like stashing away secret savings. These secret savings aren’t kept in banks and can easily be forgotten, but no one would use this “secret stash” for daily expenses due to three major obstacles to Bitcoin payments:
Price volatility
High transaction fees
Lack of payment networks
MetaMask’s new financial card, launched in collaboration with Mastercard, effectively addresses all three obstacles, enabling cryptocurrency payments on the Ethereum network.
Lower Fees
MetaMask has 30 million monthly active users, making it the most widely used cryptocurrency wallet globally. Last month, MetaMask announced its partnership with Mastercard to launch a financial card. Once the card is linked to a MetaMask wallet, users can choose to pay with cryptocurrencies like USDC, USDT, and wETH wherever the Mastercard logo is displayed. According to the official announcement:
MetaMask, Mastercard, and Baanx (Crypto Life) have begun testing the MetaMask financial card. This is the world's first Mastercard that allows direct payments from the MetaMask wallet. Eligible users can now make cryptocurrency payments at merchants that accept Mastercard. The MetaMask financial card integrates Mastercard's global commercial network, MetaMask's security, and the transfer efficiency of Ethereum-based Linea. Whether shopping online or in physical stores, users can enjoy a fast, economical, and secure payment experience.
The MetaMask financial card balances asset autonomy with payment convenience, marking a new milestone in cryptocurrency payments. Initially, people imagined crypto payments following the "Nakamoto model," where consumers would find stores displaying "Bitcoin Accepted Here" signs, calculate the current exchange rate, and then transfer BTC directly from their wallets to the shopkeeper. Unfortunately, the biggest issue with this model is that very few stores are willing to accept Bitcoin.
Later, Crypto.com exchange launched a cryptocurrency Visa card that significantly increased the convenience of payments. As long as the merchant accepts Visa, transactions can be made, and cardholders are indirectly paying with cryptocurrency. Although this card is convenient, it sacrifices asset autonomy. If the issuing Crypto.com exchange goes bankrupt, the balance on the Visa card would be at serious risk2.
People began to wonder if it would be possible to connect a wallet directly to the payment network, ensuring both convenience and self-custody of assets. Several years ago, similar ideas were proposed, but they only became a reality recently due to technological breakthroughs—specifically the Ethereum Cancun (Dencun) upgrade in early 2024.
I boldly predicted earlier3 that the Dencun upgrade would be the most impactful in Ethereum's history, as many on-chain applications were held back by high transaction fees. If the MetaMask financial card had launched three years earlier, consumers would have faced transaction fees of 500 TWD to buy a 100 TWD meal.
No one would do something so impractical. Therefore, the key point of MetaMask's announcement, aside from its collaboration with Mastercard, is that they built this entire infrastructure on the Linea blockchain. Linea is an Ethereum Layer 2 network led by Consensys, MetaMask's parent company, and its transaction fees are as low as those on Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, or Polygon. Coupled with the Dencun upgrade earlier this year, people can finally use the MetaMask financial card to buy lunch.
On the other hand, the reason Mastercard is willing to partner with MetaMask is that they recognize a familiar scenario.
Lack of Rules
In a report released by Mastercard in 2023, it was pointed out that the challenges of cryptocurrency payments stem from the clash between new technology and old problems. As early as the 1950s, the financial services industry encountered similar difficulties:
While the technology behind digital assets is innovative, the challenges they face are age-old... Although the current digital asset ecosystem can securely transfer funds from point A to point B, they often lack cross-ecosystem interoperability, clearly defined transaction compliance, handling of hacker attacks, or dispute resolution processes. As a result, despite fostering outstanding technological innovation and attracting significant investment, the digital asset ecosystem struggles to apply these advancements in commercial scenarios.
Let’s rewind to the 1950s. When credit cards first emerged, banks began issuing their own cards, encouraging people to replace cash with card payments. But at that time, Mastercard and Visa had not yet been established, so banks had to negotiate directly with merchants. Imagine if I were a restaurant owner—every day, several bank representatives would come in, hoping that I would accept their credit card when customers paid their bills.
It’s easy to imagine that the situation back then was even more chaotic than today’s mobile payments. Before making a purchase, customers had to ask, "Do you accept Bank A's credit card?" At that point, I would have to pull out a list and check if a representative from that bank had ever discussed a partnership with us, and if there were any promotional offers.
In those days, using a credit card to buy lunch was like using a cannon to shoot a sparrow—totally inefficient. It wasn’t until a few banks jointly formed credit card payment networks like Mastercard and Visa, which were dedicated to handling token exchanges, asset transfers, and dispute resolutions, that the payment process was greatly simplified, benefiting banks, merchants, and consumers alike.
To Mastercard, each cryptocurrency resembles the early days of bank-issued credit cards. Simply being able to make payments isn’t enough; the process must be streamlined so that consumers can easily adopt it. Therefore, Mastercard believes the key isn’t in the underlying transaction settlement mechanisms, but in establishing a standardized process that all parties can follow.
Mastercard’s announcement highlighted that this process needs to be redesigned and will differ from the cryptocurrency payment cards issued by centralized exchanges:
As market regulation and enforcement capabilities improve, the digital asset ecosystem may experience a resurgence in 2024... If you want to spend crypto assets, you first need to transfer them to an exchange, convert them into fiat currency, and then transfer them to your bank account... Some regulated centralized exchanges have launched crypto payment cards, but issuing a personal wallet payment card is a different matter. This card’s transaction process must allow MetaMask wallet users to check out anywhere Mastercard is accepted, while retaining control of their funds before making a purchase. Additionally, Mastercard's dispute management process and refund protection will ensure higher security.
In simple terms, Mastercard is building an entirely new transaction process specifically for cryptocurrency because they believe the current rules governing crypto transactions don’t align with typical consumer usage.
Take disputed payments as an example: if a consumer pays a merchant directly from their wallet in cryptocurrency, they have no recourse to recover their funds unless the merchant voluntarily offers a refund. However, if the consumer pays with a MetaMask payment card, Mastercard will intervene in the dispute process and won’t simply say, “This is cryptocurrency, there’s nothing we can do.”
Being able to pay with a card is a brand-new function for wallets, and it will lead to differentiation between wallets in the future.
Market Strategy
Currently, there isn’t much differentiation between cryptocurrency wallets, but as wallets begin to launch their own financial cards, competition between them could become similar to that of banks. Just as banks use credit cards to attract people to deposit their money, wallet providers might shift their competition from interface design to payment convenience. The wallets that make spending easier and offer the most rewards will likely become the most popular.
However, unlike banks that earn interest on deposits, cryptocurrency wallets function more like storage facilities—they can't use users' assets. So, what's the benefit of attracting deposits?
MetaMask’s revenue primarily comes from transaction fees. When users utilize the wallet's built-in exchange service, MetaMask charges a 0.875% service fee. Currently, with limited on-chain use cases for cryptocurrencies, this feature goes largely unnoticed. But with the introduction of financial cards, things might change. If I set my MetaMask card to debit USDT, but my wallet only contains OP and ARB tokens, I would likely use MetaMask's exchange service to sell some tokens and convert them into USDT for spending. The more funds MetaMask manages and the more frequently they circulate, the greater the potential for revenue growth.
That said, I often feel that these crypto payment cards are always tested first in countries that need them the least. The people who genuinely need this card aren’t in the EU, the UK, Taiwan, or Hong Kong, but in places like Argentina, Turkey, or Zimbabwe—regions facing severe inflation. These are the people who have to rely on cryptocurrency for survival.
MetaMask’s choice to test the card in the EU and UK markets isn’t surprising, and it’s why the media has only briefly covered the story. For now, it’s just another toy for crypto millionaires, not a life-changing tool that can significantly impact people’s lives.
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