The European cryptocurrency startup has begun transfers and payments in ether, dash, litecoin and dogecoin. The amount of transaction starts from €1.

Bitwala’s new services allow to pay bills, top-up bitcoin debit cards and make international payments with these four altcoins.

The transaction fee is 0.5% (at least €1) of the sum, the same as for bitcoin payments, with one working day processing time. Comparing to the SWIFT payments platform, the fee there is 0.5% plus €15 per transaction, while processing typically takes two to three days.

Altcoin users can now transfer funds to more than 35 countries and exchange cryptocurrency assets for fiat money: US dollars, euros, British pounds, Swiss francs, Norwegian, Czech, Danish and Swedish krones, Polish zlotys, Hungarian forints and Croatian kunas.

“Bitwala was created with the idea that sending and receiving money should be super fast, safe and inexpensive. That is why we are offering the best currency rates and fees on the market,” the company states.

“We also believe transparency is key when it comes to providing excellent service to customers. With Bitwala, you will never find any hidden costs and fees.”

In addition, Bitwala has announced a marketing campaign, during which the company will distribute about 2,000 free debit cards denominated in bitcoins. To get the card, one must register an account on Bitwala website, provide a copy of an ID and any paid bill as a proof of address. The card can be both physical and virtual.

Virtual cards are sent to users within one working day, physical ones within 10 working days. Bitwala cards allow paying in shops through standard PoS terminals that accept Visa cards, and withdrawal of fiat cash at standard ATMs.

Bitwala allows making international transfers through SEPA and SWIFT payment systems. The platform’s users, who went through the full registration and provided ID data, can transfer up to €50,000 monthly.

Earlier, Bitwala announced a partnership with ShapeShift cryptocurrency exchange. The purpose of this cooperation was to allow altcoins owners to make transfers and top-up debit cards with altcoins. According to Biwala’s founder and CEO Jörg von Minckwitz, the company had received many requests from altcoin users asking to introduce this service. He believes ether to be the most widely used cryptocurrency after bitcoins.

Elena Platonova