Japan’s largest Bitcoin exchange, Bitflyer, launches Bitcoin Visa prepaid card

By Kevin Helms - October 7, 2017 (news.bitcoin.com)

Japan’s largest bitcoin exchange by volume, Bitflyer, has launched its own reloadable Visa prepaid card. Customers can fund them using bitcoin through Bitflyer or other bitcoin wallets. The exchange is also giving away gifts to 1,000 customers during the launch period.

Bitflyer’s Visa Prepaid Card

Bitflyer announced on Friday the launch of its yen-denominated bitcoin Visa prepaid card. Starting on October 6, customers can apply for Bitflyer-branded Visa prepaid cards, fund them with bitcoin and use them at any stores that accept Visa cards.

The cards are free to use, with neither a signup fee nor an annual fee, according to Bitflyer’s website. Customers can reload their cards via their Bitflyer accounts online or using a mobile phone app. Balances on the cards are displayed in Japanese yen.

There is a limit of 30,000 yen per load, a monthly load limit of 120,000 yen and a lifetime load limit of 1 million yen per card. In addition, each card expires in 5 years and its balance cannot exceed 100,000 yen.

To commemorate the event, Bitflyer is conducting a drawing to give away gifts to 1,000 “Trade Class” customers who have signed up with confirmed transactions between October 6 and October 22. Bitflyer has two account classes; the Wallet Class and the Trade Class. Wallet Class users are not eligible to purchase or sell digital currencies.

Signing Up, Funding, and Vandle Cards

To sign up for a Bitflyer Visa prepaid card, customers are directed to apply on Vandle Card’s website. Vandle cards are Visa prepaid cards, a product of Kanmu Inc and Orico Corporation. They have partnered with Bitflyer to issue the exchange’s branded Vandle cards. The cards can be used at “more than 40 million merchants in more than 200 countries and regions to enhance convenience,” wrote Kanmu Inc.

After signing up, customers will receive their Bitflyer prepaid cards in the mail, which must be registered with the exchange to begin funding through it.

The Vandle website explains that all Vandle cards can be funded in several ways, such as with a credit card, the NTT Docomo mobile payment, or using an ATM that supports “Pay-Easy.” Customers can also reload their cards at Family Mart, Lawson, Circle K, Sunkus, Mini Stop, and Seicomart convenient stores. Furthermore, all Vandle cards can also be funded with bitcoin via another bitcoin exchange, Coincheck, as well as other mobile wallets using a provided QR code.

Kevin Helms

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.