- Bitbank has partnered with EPOS Card to launch a Visa credit card in Japan that can settle monthly bills directly from users’ Bitcoin balances.
- Cardholders will also receive 0.5% crypto cashback and can choose rewards in Bitcoin, Ether or Aster.
Bitbank is bringing crypto a little closer to ordinary consumer finance in Japan, though in a distinctly local way.
The exchange said Monday that it has teamed up with EPOS Card, the fintech arm of Marui Group, to launch the EPOS Crypto Card for Bitbank, a Visa credit card that allows users to settle their monthly bill directly from assets held on the exchange.
According to the press release, it is the first service in Japan that enables credit card payments to be settled this way using balances kept at a crypto exchange.
Bitbank is starting with Bitcoin, not a broader crypto basket
For now, the automatic settlement feature is limited to Bitcoin. Users who opt in can have their credit card bill paid from the BTC held in their Bitbank account, rather than from a traditional linked bank account.
That makes the product different from a prepaid crypto card or a simple spend-at-checkout conversion tool. The structure is closer to a conventional credit card on the front end, with crypto entering later at the repayment stage.
That distinction matters. It lets Bitbank integrate digital assets into an existing payments habit people already understand, instead of asking users to adopt a completely new spending flow from scratch.
Cashback turns the product into more than a bill-pay tool
The card also includes 0.5% crypto cashback based on monthly spending. Users can choose to receive those rewards in Bitcoin, Ether or Aster, with the rewards deposited directly into their Bitbank accounts.
That gives the card a second function beyond repayment convenience. It does not just let users use crypto passively to cover bills. It also nudges them to accumulate more of it through routine spending.
The bigger point is fairly straightforward. Exchanges have spent years trying to connect trading balances with real-world payments in a way that feels usable rather than gimmicky. Bitbank’s approach suggests one answer may be to meet users inside traditional card infrastructure first, then let crypto take over quietly in the settlement layer.
