This fintech firm is launching crypto debit card for users in 178 countries

Crypterium, a crypto fintech firm led by Visa's former General Manager for Central Europe, claims to have rolled out the most widely available prepaid crypto debit card, allowing users in 178 different countries to spend Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin in-store and online.

The card comes as the second iteration for Crypterium, who purportedly ran into a bottleneck in production with their inaugural debit card, launched last June.

In December, the Estonia-based firm suspended all pending card orders, explaining their original card-issuing partner had failed to work fast enough to meet consumer demand.

"Launching a brand new product comes with many challenges attached. One of them is that you can't make a very precise market assessment. While we expected demand for the Crypterium Card to be high, our card issuing partner did not."

A key part of Crypterium's original mobile "Cryptobank" pitch, with which in January 2018 it raised $51.6 million in an Initial Coin Offering, was to offer a virtual debit card available to users immediately after registration.

Users can order the new debit card off the Crypterium mobile app and use the in-app virtual debit card "Almost instantly" after signing up, according to the firm.

The physical card reportedly takes three business days to arrive.

Crypto debit card providers have historically been heavily beholden to their payment processors and as a result grappled with operational challenges.

In 2018, Visa abruptly terminated its relationship with card provider WaveCrest for "Violating operating regulations," rendering useless crypto debit cards from Bitwala, Cryptopay, Wirex, TenX, and more.

Major card providers have in recent years appeared to warm to the idea of crypto debit cards, however.