American Express Joins Forces With P2P Company

Since the beginning of the year, the value of bitcoin has yo-yoed, going from just under $1,000 to over $3,000 and down again.

One company that’s joining the cryptocurrency game is peer-to-peer (P2P) payment company Abra. Through its mobile app, its customers will now have the capability to purchase up to $200 worth of bitcoins per day through eligible American Express cards. This new offering allows Abra users to send money of any kind to anyone at any time.

Eligible American Express (AMEX) cards include its U.S. consumers cards, its branded cards issued by third parties, its re-loadable prepaid cards, Bluebird and Serve. Banks supporting Abra customers’ purchasing of the cryptocurrency via American Express include Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Wells Fargo.

Abra’s Founder and CEO, Bill Barhydt, has shared with several in the payments space that he’s hoping a collaboration like this partnership with AMEX will help bitcoin adoption ramp up significantly around the world.

“Having a traditional card network partner directly with a company directly in the cryptocurrency world is a huge win for the space, and it’s been a long time coming,” said Barhydt regarding news of the partnership. “I’m quite confident it will lead to even bigger and better things for Abra and the entire space down the road.”

While many other players in the payments space, like Visa and Mastercard, are also making moves in the bitcoin space via blockchain, it appears that the industry is still in its nascent stages as it forms bitcoin best practices.