“We’re exploring other ways, potentially, to redeem your membership
rewards points, but I don’t think you’re going to see an American
Express card linked to cryptocurrency anytime soon," said Stephen
Squeri.
American Express credit card holders may one day be able to redeem
points for cryptocurrencies, but the company has no immediate plans to
issue a crypto-linked credit card.
In a Tuesday interview with Yahoo! Finance, Amex CEO Stephen Squeri said
credit card holders were “probably not gonna see an Amex crypto-linked
card anytime soon” but the company was already involved in using cards
for stablecoins, and monitored for central bank digital currency
developments from the U.S. government. The CEO said he considered major
cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC)
as “more of an asset class” like gold, but did not think they would
facilitate payments in the same way as credit cards, given their price
volatility.
“You don’t have the service with [crypto], you don’t
have the dispute rights with it, you’re not getting rewards, and you’re
not extending credit,” said Squeri. “All of those values that occur
within a credit card do not lend themselves to cryptocurrency.”
He added:
“We’re
exploring other ways, potentially, to redeem your membership rewards
points, but I don’t think you’re going to see an American Express card
linked to cryptocurrency anytime soon.”
Visa and
Mastercard seem to be ahead of Amex when it comes to partnering with
firms for crypto benefits from card holders’ purchases. In January 2021,
crypto exchange Gemini released its own credit card allowing users to earn up to 3% back in BTC. In 2020, BlockFi announced it had partnered with Visa to let cardholders receive 1.5% of their purchases back in BTC.
Related: Crypto credit cards could be the missing link to mass adoption
The
benefits aren’t limited to card holders based in the United States — as
is sometimes the case for travel and hotel rewards. In December,
Mastercard announced it would be launching a crypto-linked payment card across the Asia-Pacific region, enabling users to convert digital assets into fiat.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/amex-ceo-hints-at-exploring-ways-to-allow-credit-card-holders-to-redeem-points-for-crypto
