European bitcoin exchange CoinMate has announced a new partnership with payment provider MoneyPolo. This enables users from over 100 countries to exchange cash for bitcoin and back.
Users who wish to buy bitcoin with cash, need to open a MoneyPolo account as well as a CoinMate account. They can then fund their MoneyPolo account with cash at one of the company's partners with brick-and-mortar locations in over 100 countries. Once the MoneyPolo account is funded, the money can be transferred to CoinMate for free, where it can be used to buy bitcoin. Users who want to sell bitcoin for cash simply transfer the fiat to their MoneyPolo account and pick it up at a local partner.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, CEO of CoinMate parent company Confirmo, Roman Valihrach, said:
“Most Bitcoin markets work with bank deposits and bank withdrawals, however it is estimated that 40% of the world's adult population has no bank account and an even greater share is limited to local transfers. MoneyPolo account allows cost effective cash deposits and cash withdrawals in more than 100 countries of the world through their partnership networks. That's why we decided to integrate MoneyPolo into CoinMate.”
London-based bitcoin exchange CoinMate launched in April of this year. The announcement to cooperate with MoneyPolo comes one week after CoinMate launched a new version of its trading platform. Most importantly, CoinMate changed its standard currency from the U.S. dollar to the euro. The exchange also allows for deposits in Czech koruna and Polish zloty.
The company is based in the UK because the regulatory climate towards cryptocurrencies is more friendly than in many other countries. CoinMate stated:
“There’s a reason we’re based in the UK as a cryptocurrency company. It’s here that regulation has been the most proactive. Not only that, transactions have been officially declared exempt from VAT (Value Added Tax). You can’t get much better than that.”
MoneyPolo is a London-based financial services provider with a network of more than 400,000 partner branches around the world. The company has been taking an interest in bitcoin for a while now. In May, MoneyPolo participated in the Bitcoin Conference Prague, where the company addressed issues regarding anti-money laundering procedures and cryptocurrency.
To celebrate its partnership with MoneyPolo, CoinMate is giving away €20 woth of bitcoin to the first user per country to deposit or withdraw cash. Keep an eye out on CoinMate's website for the details of this campaign that will launch this week.
CoinMate and MoneyPolo are the latest in a series of services for buying cryptocurrency with cash. Cointelegraph recently published an overview of how to get your hands on bitcoin without a bank account.
Cointelegraph reached out to MoneyPolo for additional comments, but had not received a response by the time of publication.