In today's digital economy era, virtual currencies have become part of the global payment system, especially in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are more economically developed areas. USDT (Tether) is a stablecoin that is popular because its value is pegged to the U.S. dollar. The characteristic of USDT is that it is a stablecoin, which means that its value is designed to be pegged to traditional currencies such as the US dollar, thus reducing market volatility. This feature makes USDT an ideal cross-border payment tool, especially in areas with strict requirements for foreign exchange controls. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, USDT is not only used by individual users for daily transactions, but some companies have also joined hands with credit card companies to launch prepaid cards/debit cards, and the settlement currency has been converted from legal currency to cryptocurrency.

How Hong Kong actually uses virtual currency USDT for payment

In Hong Kong, the current application scenarios of USDT are generally prepaid cards/debit cards. Two more popular prepaid cards will be introduced below.

Wirex Visa Debit Card

Wirex is a financial services platform that provides a range of services including Wirex cards. The Wirex Card is a prepaid card that allows cardholders to spend cryptocurrencies and traditional currencies in the same way as a prepaid card. Its APAC version of the prepaid card can store 12 fiat currencies and 37 cryptocurrencies. Users can top up funds to the Wirex Visa card via credit card or cryptocurrency without paying foreign currency transaction fees, and can convert different fiat currencies into payment currencies to pay merchants. The card can also instantly convert cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies, adding to the flexible use of cryptocurrencies. Spending with Wirex can also earn you cryptocurrency rebates, with the most basic account holders receiving a 1% Cryptoback™ rebate. Cryptoback™ rebates are issued in the form of Wirex’s own cryptocurrency WXT . After receiving WXT, users can freely convert it into other cryptocurrencies or legal currencies.

The legal currencies supported by Wirex Travel Card include: United States Dollar (USD), Singapore Dollar (SGD), Australian Dollar (AUD), New Zealand Dollar (NZD), Japanese Yen (JPY), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP) ), Czech Koruna (CZK), Mexican Peso (MXN), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Swiss Franc (CHF).

Supported cryptocurrencies include: BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, XLM, WXT, DAI, XNO, LINK, MKR, AAVE, YFI, UNI, UMA, OMG, BAT, ZRX, SNX, FTT, COMP, REP, BNT, BAL, 1INCH, LRC, KNC, CRV, SUSHI, ADA, XTZ, EOS, DOGE, SOL, DOT, CHZ, MATIC, AXS, APE.

Hong Kong Crypto.com Visa Debit Card

Crypto.com is a platform that provides a secure way to buy, sell and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum and over 250 other cryptocurrencies.

Crypto.com has launched a virtual currency prepaid card with 5 levels and no monthly or annual fees. However, if the cardholder wants to apply for or upgrade to a higher-level prepaid card, the cardholder needs to stake a certain amount of CRO coins on the Crypto.com platform and lock it for six months.

Higher level debit cards enjoy more rebates and benefits. Some of the attractive offers include getting 100% rebate when paying monthly fees for Spotify and Netflix using Crypto.com Visa Card. Cardholders can get the same value of CRO coins as rebate whenever they pay with Crypto.com Visa Card.

The legal currencies supported by the Crypto.com Visa Card include Euro (EUR), Australian Dollar (AUD), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), Japanese Yen (JPY), British Pound (GBP) and United States Dollar (USD). The supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Ada Coin (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), etc.

How Taiwan actually uses virtual currency USDT for payment

In Taiwan, the current application scenarios of USDT can be divided into merchant model and consumer model. The consumer model is also the same as in Hong Kong, using prepaid cards to pay for daily expenses. The two modes will be briefly described below.

Taiwan Crypto.com Visa Debit Card

In Taiwan, users can apply for a Crypto.com prepaid card and use it within Taiwan. Just bind the CRO financial card with LINE PAY, and the cardholder can scan the QR code to pay with their mobile phone. The CRO prepaid card can also be used as a regular VISA card and can be used at merchants that support VISA around the world. After owning a CRO prepaid card, the holder does not need to carry other cards or cash.

Cardholders can convert cryptocurrencies in their Crypto.com account into the desired fiat currency at an exchange rate. Similarly, cardholders can also convert other cryptocurrencies into Crypto.com’s native token CRO or other supported fiat currencies and then deposit them into their Crypto.com account. Such functionality enables cardholders to exchange and store between different currencies.

Merchants receive virtual currency USDT

MaiCoin is a Taiwanese exchange that recently launched a cryptocurrency payment service called “MaiPay”. Allows users to use a variety of mainstream cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), US Dollar Stable Coin (USDT), US Dollar Stable Coin (USDC) and MaiCoin’s own platform currency MAX for transactions, reducing the cost of cryptocurrency payments threshold.

In the past, if a merchant wanted to accept cryptocurrency as a denominated transaction, it was usually only possible to transfer the cryptocurrency directly through a personal wallet between the merchant and consumer. However, this transaction method often faces problems such as long transaction times on the chain, high handling fees, product pricing and finance, and lacks protection for consumers.

The MaiPay cryptocurrency payment service allows merchants to offer consumers the option of paying in cryptocurrencies without the need to hold any cryptocurrencies.

Merchants can use mobile devices such as tablets or mobile phones to allow consumers to scan QR codes to make payments, or directly access MaiPay's API through the POS system to collect payments. Merchants can choose to price in New Taiwan Dollars and charge corresponding values ​​of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), US Dollar Stable Coin (USDT), US Dollar Stable Coin (USDC) or MaiCoin’s own platform currency MAX and other tokens. In addition, merchants can also settle instantly in cryptocurrency or New Taiwan Dollar to avoid exchange differences due to price fluctuations.