Bitcoin Wallets

Mastercard Launches Euro Denominated Non-Custodial Bitcoin Debit Card

Published

3 months ago

September 5, 2024

Mastercard has partnered with Bitcoin and crypto payments provider Mercury to launch a euro-denominated debit card allowing users to spend Bitcoin and crypto directly from non-custodial wallets, as per Cointelegraph.

JUST IN: 🇪🇺 Mastercard launches euro non-custodial #Bitcoin and crypto debit card.
They have over 100 MILLION merchants 🚀 pic.twitter.com/xpASRDrhVx
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) September 5, 2024

The card enables European Bitcoin holders to spend from their self-hosted wallets at any of Mastercard’s over 100 million merchants globally without needing to custody funds with an intermediary.

Mastercard is a payments titan serving nearly 1 billion customers in over 210 countries. This latest integration reflects the company’s growing efforts to bridge Bitcoin with its sprawling traditional payments infrastructure.

“We are providing consumers who want to spend their digital assets with an easy, reliable, and secure way to do so, anywhere Mastercard is accepted,” said Christian Rau, Senior Vice President of Mastercard’s crypto unit.

The card allows spending Bitcoin and other crypto simply by connecting a non-custodial wallet. Users avoid selling Bitcoin and crypto on an exchange before spending, maintaining full ownership. However, Mastercard’s card does have fees, including a €1.6 issuance fee, €1 monthly maintenance fee, and a 0.95% transaction fee.

Nonetheless, by supporting non-custodial wallets, Mastercard addresses a major pain point and grants users the flexibility to directly control their Bitcoin and crypto. The move caters to a growing audience preferring self-hosted wallets over centralized exchanges.

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Bitcoin

Dormant Bitcoin wallet from 2014 moves BTC worth $10.2m

Published

3 months ago

August 17, 2024

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A Bitcoin wallet that has been dormant since 2014 suddenly woke up and moved over 174 bitcoins worth more than $102 million.

Blockchain data showed that the Bitcoin (BTC) wallet that received 174.88 BTC on Jan. 8, 2014, moved funds for the first time on Aug. 16, 2024.

The transfer comes after a decade, during which Bitcoin’s price soared to highs of $73,000 before retreating to current levels.

Transaction cost

While BTC’s initial value was nearly $142,000 in 2014, the staggering gains the flagship cryptocurrency has seen since mean that the 174.88 bitcoin is now worth more than $10.2 million.

Blockchain tracker Whale Alert spotted this dormant Bitcoin wallet movement on Aug. 16.

The transaction fee for the transfer was 67,500 satoshis, or $39.43, which is considerably low. However, per mempool details, this was still an overpayment of 50x that saw the $10.2 million transaction confirmed quickly.

In October 2018, the wallet’s holdings totaled about $896,000, and crossed the $5 million mark in late January 2021.

According to data on blockchain explorer Blockchair, the addresses’ balance currently stands at 0.00004226 BTC, worth $2.50 at the current Bitcoin price of $59,300.

Bitcoin wallets waking up

The last few months have seen a rising frequency of dormant Bitcoin addresses waking up to move millions of dollars worth of BTC. It’s notable that Satoshi-era addresses — those holding coins mined in the first few months of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s time — have not been common.

However, the past few months have seen multiple dormant wallets suddenly move, including one that woke up after a 12-year hibernation to transfer $6.9 million in BTC in July this year. Another wallet sent $3 million in BTC to Binance in June after being dormant for over 14 years.

Whale Alert also spotted this other dormant wallet movement.

Currently, about 18.3 million BTC are in dormant Bitcoin wallets. BitInfoCharts data shows a sharp rise since January 2024, when cumulatively, dormant BTC wallets held about 7.4 million coins.

In most cases, investors watch the movement of BTC in dormant wallets as potential sources of fresh supply pressure on prices. ‘Sell wall’ investors often see prices struggle, resulting in huge volatility.

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