Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto experimentation and toward trusted financial infrastructure, OKX said, announcing the launch of a new debit card in Europe.
“Momentum is gaining rapidly,” Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, told CoinDesk. “Regulators are putting up real guardrails, big banks are not only taking them seriously for payments and settlements, they are also participating in industry-wide EU initiatives to become issuers, and everyday users are opting for faster and cheaper digital payments.”
European regulators have accelerated that push by launching the EU Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, which brings together stablecoin issuers and crypto service providers under a single bloc-wide regulatory regime.
Ghoos’ comments accompanied OKX’s announcement that it has launched a new crypto payments card in Europe, allowing users to spend stablecoins directly at merchants that accept Mastercard.
The OKX card connects self-custody wallets with real-world payments, offering commission-free spending, although a 0.4% market spread applies at the point of conversion and crypto rewards.
Unlike most crypto cards that require manual conversions or preloading funds, the OKX card allows users to pay with stablecoins held in their wallets. Assets are converted only at the time of purchase. Users get crypto rewards of up to 20% during 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 more than 150 million locations worldwide. Designed to integrate with OKX’s on-chain infrastructure, it avoids centralized custody and emphasizes user control. “We are making it simpler for anyone in Europe to use cryptocurrencies for real-world purchases, instantly, securely and transparently,” Ghoos concluded.
OKX issues the card through an authorized European payment provider and operates in compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations. Mastercard executive Christian Rau called the expansion part of an effort to bring stablecoins “into the financial mainstream.”
Ghoos said he believes stablecoins will soon be widely adopted. “Early adopters may be crypto-native, but over time, we believe instant, low-cost global payments via stablecoins will become the default option for everyone.”
