Eliza Gkritsi
Eliza Gkritsi is CoinDesk's crypto mining reporter based in Asia.
AUSTIN, TX - San Diego-based startup Edge unveiled a crypto card that does not require any personal identification data to set it up or use at CoinDesk's Consensus 2022 conference.
While there are other cards that allow users to spend crypto by converting it into fiat currency when paying out merchants, the Edge Mastercard is likely the first card not to require any personal identification data.
The Edge Mastercard supports bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), dogecoin (DOGE), litecoin (LTC), and dash (DASH), but is only accessible to U.S. customers at launch, according to a Wednesday press release.
Users do not have to pay any fees for the card, which has a daily limit of $1000 and also supports online payment.
The card can be used at any of the 10 million merchants across the U.S. that are on Mastercard's open-loop network. Users can input any name under the "billing address" fields, as long as it agrees with the shipping address, the statement said.
The card uses technology by Ionia, a fintech and payments startup, and is issued by Patriot Bank N.A.
Edge Mastercard is "in compliance with all requirements for issuers, card associations, regulations, local, federal and international laws," according to the press release.
Founded in 2014 as Airbitz, Edge is a self-custody digital assets exchange with $2.5 million in funding, according to startup information platform Crunchbase.
