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Update – It has been brought to our attention that there has been incident/s of people not receiving delivery of card/s. This article is not an endorsement of service. Please do your own due diligence.

Equicex Group, which offers regular and privacy-focused debit cards and an exchange, has decided to integrate Dash to greatly enhance the spending options of Dash users.

The Equicex Blue VISA Card is currently available for GBP, EUR and USD currency, but their CIO, David Miller, says they “will add more currencies depending on our users countries”. The card has various fees and limits based on the currency being used, but they are relatively low compared to other prepaid VISA cryptocurrency cards and their Virtual Card is even cheaper. David highlighted that “the normal Blue Visa Card is for the everyday user and in order to have higher withdrawal and transaction limits the user must be verified on our system”. Currently, this card is available in 95 countries.

Equicex also offers the Black Card, as “a unique product which has no limits, and they do not require any kind of identification documents”, David continued explaining, “it is most used by merchants who want to provide their users fully anonymous services”. The Black Card is available worldwide in CAD and CHF, in addition to GBP, EUR and USD currencies. David highlighted that since the card is “issued by an offshore bank it automatically comes with enhanced protection and anonymous services”. However, “the prices and also monthly charges are higher since the Black Card is issued by a well-known offshore bank in Belize and all offshore banks have higher prices than normal banks”.

Finally, Equicex also offers a cryptocurrency exchange as “an additional service on their website to their customers as well as all other people”. They only charge a 0.10% fee on top of network fees for these exchanges, which makes their platform a one-stop shop for cryptocurrency spending and exchange hub.



Integration of Dash to offer consumers more spending options

Equicex’s decision to integrate Dash will benefit both parties with increased cryptocurrency usage. Consumers are currently able to spend Dash at over 4,800 merchants around the world, however, there are still many items that consumers require that cannot easily be purchased directly with Dash. A cryptocurrency debit card vastly enhances consumer options when making purchasing decisions and seamlessly switching between merchants that directly accept cryptocurrencies and those that do not. However, many of these cards have struggled with delivering their products, have long waiting lists, expensive fees/rates, and/or require consumers to sacrifice a lot of private information to meet KYC/AML regulations placed on the company by partner banks and/or governments.

This is where Equicex really shines since their Black Card does not require any of this sensitive information since their partner bank is located in Belize. Additionally, their fees and rate are relatively good when compared to other cryptocurrency debit cards that do not even offer the same privacy features. Thus, consumers that got into cryptocurrency for privacy reasons, many of which are in Dash for PrivateSend and its former Darkcoin days, can still have the best of both worlds with increased spending options, while also maintaining their privacy.

Dash committed to increasing consumer and merchant value

Within only a few years, and mostly within last year alone, Dash has been able to get over 4,800 merchants around the world to accept Dash, many of which are located in Venezuela and Colombia. Dash is providing value to merchants by saving them time and money that traditional card processors typically charge and gives value to consumers via pass-through price decreases thanks to merchant savings. Additionally, there is the benefit of monetary and financial freedom of no longer being tied to the inflationary fiat world, which is easier to see in countries like Venezuela, hence the faster adoption.

However, these card services help bridge the gap for cryptocurrency users until more merchants directly integrate cryptocurrencies. Gift card services like Bitrefill, eGifter, and Coincards help supplement direct merchant Dash adoption as well, which has seen rapid increases in availability. Dash is helping to provide additional value to consumers and merchants in as many channels as possible in an attempt to kick-start mass adoption. As more third party services help the process, direct integration will become more feasible and popular when cryptocurrencies come back into the mainstream during the next bull market.