(Kitco News) - As the cryptocurrency ecosystem struggles to overcome an uptick in enforcement actions from regulators and a pullback in engagement from banking institutions, crypto fans got a bit of positive news on Friday in the form of a new fiat onramp for the popular crypto wallet provider MetaMask.
ConsenSys, a leading Ethereum and decentralized protocols software company, announced a new partnership with Mercuryo, a leading crypto payments company. Mercuryo’s payment system will be integrated with MetaMask, enabling MetaMask users to buy crypto tokens with bank cards, Apple Pay, and various bank transfer methods directly from their wallets.
The integration allows users to bypass the need to engage with centralized exchanges and operate fully in the realm of decentralized finance (DeFi), helping to simplify the purchase of digital assets with instant checkouts and easier user onboarding.
“Our integration with Mercuryo helps streamline onboarding and the process of acquiring digital assets without complex identity verification," said Lorenzo Santos, Product Manager for MetaMask. "This enables our users to seamlessly explore the Web3 ecosystem, including NFT marketplaces, play-and-earn games, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, and metaverse worlds.”
The partnership is targeted toward users with little to no experience in crypto – as most experienced users are well-versed in navigating between DeFi and centralized finance (CeFi) – and bills itself as an easy way for MetaMask users to buy popular tokens and coins with one of its more than two dozen supported fiat currencies.
Some of the supported currencies include the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound, Turkish lira, Japanese yen, Mexican peso, South Korean won, Swedish krona, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, and Australian dollar.
There are currently 18 cryptocurrencies supported by Mercuryo including Ether (ETH), Basic Attention Token (BAT), USD Coin (USDC), Dai (DAI), Tether (USDT), Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (MATIC), Fantom (FTM) and Dogecoin (DOGE).
Utilizing Mercuryo’s onramp will allow MetaMask users to purchase up to €699 ($762) in a few simple steps without needing to do a full identity verification.
"Collaborations with market leaders like MetaMask are an exciting opportunity for Mercuryo to help more people experience cryptocurrencies in the easiest way possible,” said Petr Kozyakov, CEO of Mercuryo. “Instead of opening yet another new account at one of the exchanges, the users can manage their digital assets on a single platform."
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This development comes at a welcome time for many in the crypto industry as banks have recently been withdrawing services for crypto companies and exchanges.
In January, Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp., the holding company for New York-based Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB), announced that it was closing down its cryptocurrency unit due to “developments in the crypto-asset industry” and changes in the regulatory landscape in regard to banks’ involvement in crypto-asset-related businesses.
In February, Binance, the top crypto exchange by volume, announced that it was halting all USD transfers via SWIFT after its banking partner Signature Bank revealed that it would only support USD transactions greater than $100,000.
This partnership between ConsenSys and Mercuryo helps to alleviate some of the pressure exerted by the decline in crypto banking integrations, but there’s a strong likelihood that more such integrations will be needed in the future as U.S. regulators show no signs of slowing their oversight or enforcement actions.
