Xapo Customers Unexpectedly Lose Access to Bitcoin Debit Card
Xapo is a Hong Kong based Bitcoin company that offers wallet services, cold storage solutions and a bitcoin-based debit card. Xapo launched in March of 2014 and has been providing service to thousands of customers world-wide. They have multiple fully insured cold-storage vaults around the world protected by armed guards and state-of-the-art surveillance mechanisms.
Recently Xapo unexpectedly shut down access to all Bitcoin debit cards. They released the following statement:
Apparently the card issuer 'Wave Crest Holdings, Ltd' was instructed by Visa to close all cards associated with Xapo accounts. Xapo did not receive any prior notice before the shut down of Bitcoin debit cards. As crypto-currencies continue to gain popularity around the world, traditional financial institutions may see them as a threat to their existence.
Currently Xapo is working on finding a new issuer and promises free cards to those who had theirs closed.