Cardholders of American Express credit cards may be able to redeem points for cryptocurrencies in the future, but the corporation has no plans to launch a crypto-linked credit card right now.
In a Tuesday interview with Yahoo! Finance, Amex CEO Stephen Squeri said that while credit card holders “probably won’t see an Amex crypto-linked card anytime soon,” the company was already involved in using cards for stablecoins and was keeping an eye on the US government’s central bank digital currency developments.
The CEO described big cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) as “more of an asset class” similar to gold, but he did not believe they would be used to make payments in the same way as credit cards because of their price volatility.
“With [crypto], you don’t have the service, you don’t have the dispute rights, you don’t earn incentives, and you don’t extend credit,” Squeri explained. “Cryptocurrency does not lend itself to all of those values that occur within a credit card.”
He continued, “
“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.”
When it comes to partnering with companies for crypto benefits from cardholder purchases, Visa and Mastercard appear to be ahead of Amex.
Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange, launched its own credit card in January 2021, allowing users to earn up to 3% back in Bitcoin. BlockFi announced a partnership with Visa in 2020, allowing cardholders to get 1.5 percent of their purchases in BTC.
The perks aren’t restricted to cardholders based in the United States, as is the case with several travel and hotel rewards programs. Mastercard said in December that it would launch a crypto-linked payment card in the Asia-Pacific area, allowing users to convert digital assets into fiat currency.
