crypto.com Visa Card Spending Increased by 55% Per User in 2020

For the first time, Crypto.com has released transaction data for its Visa Card, revealing a significant increase in overall user spending, particularly for online purchases and cross-border transactions.

Today, Crypto.com released its Consumer Spending Insights Report for 2020, which details spending trends and data for its Visa Card, the world's most widely-available card of its kind. The report, the first look into spending trends for the Crypto.com Visa Card, discovered that overall spending per user in 2020 increased by 55 percent year on year, with online spending increasing by 117 percent relative to overall spending growth, particularly in the categories of housing, household goods, groceries, and cross-border transactions.

Cardholders shopped with merchants in 143 countries, nearly half of which are in the United States (24 percent) or the United Kingdom (23 percent ). According to the report, the card has seen strong overall growth as well as significant changes in user spending habits as a result of the pandemic.

Spending with the Crypto.com Visa Card followed a similar trajectory to the OECD's Consumer Confidence Index as the pandemic spread globally early last year, with drops in both occuring in the first four months of 2020. As consumer confidence recovered (yellow line), Crypto.com Visa Card spending per user (blue line) recovered quickly, finishing the year with 55% more spending than in 2019.

Categories of Spending

Groceries saw the most growth among all spending categories for the Crypto.com Visa Card in 2020, increasing from 17 percent to 20 percent during the year. Meanwhile, the proportion of spending on restaurants and transportation has fallen below 10%.

Border restrictions and quarantine measures also had an impact on spending habits, as billions of people were forced to limit travel and in-person activities. In comparison to overall growth, housing and household goods spending increased by 47 percent in 2020, while spending on hotels and restaurants increased by -21 percent.

Furthermore, spending on travel, dining, and ticketing all experienced significant negative growth in 2020, with ticketing experiencing the worst decline at -50 percent since 2019.

In-Store vs. Online

In comparison to overall growth, online spending with the Crypto.com Visa Card increased by 117 percent. Despite the pandemic, in-store spending increased by a more moderate 33 percent, indicating a general increase in card usage for a variety of purchases.

According to Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder and CEO of Crypto.com: "As our Crypto.com Visa Card becomes more widely available around the world, so do the ways in which people use it. This granular spending data provides tremendous insight into where, how, and for what purchases the card is being used globally, as well as revealing significant spending behavioural changes caused by t he pandemic. We're encouraged by the variety of transactions depicted in the data, as crypto continues to gain traction in the mainstream and as we continue to expand what is already the most widely available card of its kind into new markets."

The Crypto.com Visa Card, which was first introduced in Singapore in 2018, is the largest Visa card programme of its kind, and is now available in the United States, Canada, 31 countries in Europe, and APAC. Crypto.com expanded its partnership with Visa last month, granting the company Visa principal membership. This new partnership allows Crypto.com to begin direct issuance of its card in Australia, as well as have a direct relationship with cardholders. Crypto.com intends to expand its card programme to many more markets around the world, and began offering virtual cards in Europe this month, allowing users to begin spending while their physical cards are being delivered.

What is Crypto.com?

Crypto.com, founded in 2016, now serves over 10 million customers through the world's fastest growing crypto app, the Crypto.com Visa Card — the world's largest crypto card programme — the Crypto.com Exchange, and the Crypto.com DeFi Wallet. Crypto.com NFT, which was recently launched, is the premier platform for collecting and trading NFTs carefully curated from the worlds of art, design, entertainment, and sports.

Crypto.com is the first cryptocurrency company in the world to have ISO/IEC 27701:2019, CCSS Level 3, ISO27001:2013, and PCI:DSS 3.2.1, Level 1 compliance, as well as being independently assessed at Tier 4, the highest level for both NIST Cybersecurity and Privacy Frameworks.