Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto experimentation and into trusted financial infrastructure, OKX said as it announced the launch of a new payment card in Europe.
“Momentum is building fast,” Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, told CoinDesk. “Regulators are putting genuine safeguards in place, big banks are not only taking them seriously in terms of payments and settlements, but are joining industry-wide EU initiatives to become issuers, and everyday users are opting for faster and cheaper digital payments.”
European regulators have accelerated this momentum through the rollout of the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, which brings stablecoin issuers and crypto service providers under a single, block-wide regulatory regime.
Ghoos’ comments accompanied OKX’s announcement that it has rolled out a new crypto payment card in Europe, allowing users to spend stablecoins directly at Mastercard-accepting merchants.
The OKX card connects self-deposit wallets with real-world payments and offers fee-free spending, although there is a 0.4% market spread on the conversion point and crypto rewards.
Unlike most crypto cards that require manual conversions or preloading funds, the OKX card lets users pay with stablecoins in their wallet. The assets are only converted at the time of purchase. Users earn crypto rewards of up to 20% for a limited promotional period.
The card supports tap-to-pay functionality through mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay and can be used at over 150 million locations globally. Designed to integrate with OKX’s onchain infrastructure, it avoids centralized repository and emphasizes user control. “We’re making it easy for everyone in Europe to use crypto for real-world purchases – instantly, securely and transparently,” Ghoos concluded.
OKX issues the card through a licensed European payment provider and operates in compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations. Mastercard CEO Christian Rau called the expansion part of an effort to bring stablecoins “into the financial mainstream.”
Ghoos said he believes stablecoins will soon become widely adopted. “Initial adopters may be crypto-natives, but over time we believe that instant, low-cost global payments via stablecoins will become the standard for everyone.”
