CleverCoin, an initiative of Dutch entrepreneurs Christian de Kok and Karsten Nilsen, founded in January 2014, has expanded its bitcoin exchange to the wider European market by adding MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards to its list of payment options.
Speaking of the company’s current expansion, CleverCoin CEO Karsten Nilsen stated,
After focusing solely on Dutch customers and platform security for two months, it’s now time to open up to other European customers by accepting credit cards. We always strive to make bitcoins more accessible and easier to use. Starting today, we are one of the first to allow our customers to deposit funds with credit card.
CleverCoin now offers its EUR/BTC order-book exchange in more than 30 countries, including Spain, France, Switzerland and the UK.
With the Visa and MasterCard addition, credit card payments now join Dutch payment system iDEAL and SEPA bank transfers as available funding options for CleverCoin users. But the company is not resting on its laurels. CleverCoin is already working on integrating more payment systems as it aims to continue to expand the number of possibilities for users to deposit funds in a secure way.
In addition to its new funding options, CleverCoin has also made significant improvements to the way it verifies the identities of exchange users. Users must still provide proof of ID and proof of address, but they can now satisfy proof of address in an innovative way.
Users can now choose to receive a letter mailed to their home for the purposes of address verification. After receiving this letter, the user needs to take a selfie with the letter and then upload it to the exchange for verification.
Currently, CleverCoin charges 0.3% trading fees and has formed a partnership with payments-as-a-service provider Lemon Way, to help facilitate transactions via credit and debit cards. The company also remains as one of the very few exchanges that have banking facilities in Western Europe and works with a payment institution that is fully compliant with regulations from the European Central Bank.
What do you think? Do you have a CleverCoin account? Have you used a credit or debit card on the exchange? Let us know about your experience in the comments.
Images from CleverCoin
