Kraken acquires payments firm Reap for $600M, SecondFi launches self-custodial Visa card, Bitget Wallet expands to Africa
Kraken's parent company Payward is acquiring Hong Kong-based payments infrastructure firm Reap in a $600M cash-and-stock deal. Reap provides card issuance, cross-border payouts, and stablecoin-native settlement through a single API. The company will continue operating independently while expanding into the US and Europe through Kraken's regulatory licenses, with the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America also on the roadmap. For the Krak Card, this means Kraken now owns its payments stack end-to-end rather than relying on third-party issuers — a move that mirrors Exodus's $76M acquisition of Baanx/Monavate two weeks ago. Two major crypto exchanges bought their card-issuing infrastructure in the span of a month.
Source: CoinDesk Related: Krak Card.
SecondFi (EMURGO/Cardano) and Wirex launched a self-custodial Visa card that lets users spend directly from their own wallets. Funds don't move until the moment of transaction — no pre-loading, no custodial balance. The card supports ADA, BTC, ETH, USDC, and other digital assets at any Visa-accepting merchant. It runs on Wirex's global issuance infrastructure but carries Cardano ecosystem branding. Self-custodial spending cards have been promised by several projects, but few have shipped with major network backing. Whether the 'your keys, your card' pitch resonates beyond crypto-native users depends on how seamless the checkout experience actually is.
Source: PR Newswire Related: SecondFi Card, Wirex Card.
Bitget Wallet expanded its self-custodial Mastercard to Africa, starting with South Africa and rolling out to Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. Users spend USDC from their wallet with automatic fiat conversion at checkout, powered by Immersve infrastructure. An 8% cashback launch promo targets the first 500 applicants. Africa has been largely underserved by crypto card providers — most products focus on the US, EU, and Asia. Bitget is betting that self-custodial stablecoin spending has stronger product-market fit in regions where local currency volatility makes dollar-denominated accounts more appealing, not less.
Source: GlobeNewsWire Related: Bitget Wallet Card.
Market Context: Exchanges are buying the payments layer. Kraken spent $600M on Reap; two weeks earlier Exodus paid $76M for Baanx/Monavate. The pattern is clear — owning the card-issuing rails is no longer optional for exchanges that want to compete on payments. Meanwhile, self-custody is becoming a card feature, not just a wallet feature: SecondFi and Bitget both shipped cards where you spend from your own keys, no custodial pre-loading required. And while the industry builds, regulators are drawing lines — MiCA's July 1 deadline will be the first real test of whether Europe's licensing regime shrinks the market or just professionalizes it.