Bitbank launches Japan’s first exchange-settled crypto credit card for BTC bill pay
Japanese exchange Bitbank has launched the “EPOS Crypto Card for Bitbank,” an exchange-settled crypto credit card that lets users pay monthly credit card bills directly from their Bitbank account. The exchange-settled crypto credit card is positioned as Japan’s first to settle credit card bills straight from an exchange balance.
At launch, the feature supports only bitcoin (BTC). Bitbank says users can pay their monthly bills without moving funds to another platform, converting the required BTC to settle with the credit card issuer.
The card also offers 0.5% cashback paid in crypto. Rewards are credited back to users in BTC, ether (ETH), or Aster (ASTER). Bitbank and EPOS Card (Marui Group’s fintech arm) say additional cryptocurrencies may be added after the initial BTC rollout.
For crypto traders, this expands a regulated “spend-and-earn” use case in Japan, tying everyday spending flows to an exchange account via the exchange-settled crypto credit card. If adoption grows, it could provide incremental demand support for BTC (and secondarily ETH/ASTER) through cashback and payment settlement activity, though tax and regulatory scrutiny remain relevant.
Bullish
Bitbank’s exchange-settled crypto credit card directly connects Japanese everyday spending to exchange balances, creating an incremental on-ramp for BTC tied to (1) bill settlement and (2) 0.5% crypto cashback. Even though the initial rollout is BTC-only, cashback paid in BTC/ETH/ASTER can still encourage holding and continued account usage, supporting demand narratives for the fee-and-reward flow coins. In the short term, traders may react positively to improved BTC utility and adoption signals. In the longer term, if additional coins are enabled and usage scales, the “spend and earn” loop could become a steadier source of engagement for the exchange ecosystem—generally constructive for prices, but not guaranteed to be large enough to override macro/liquidity factors.