Crypto wallet Wirex launches Ethereum Wallet

Wirex, a London-based provider of crypto wallets linked to Visa debit cards, has announced the addition of Ethereum Wallet to its suite of services.

The announcement follows Wirex’s successful XRP launch in July and receiving e-money licence from the UK FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) last month.

“Ethereum is the second highest-value cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and its inclusion on our platform marks an important step for Wirex users”, said Pavel Matveev, co-founder.

Wirex facilitates the seamless exchange of Ethereum with other cryptocurrencies, as well as allowing users to buy, sell and spend both fiat and cryptos instantly via the Wirex Visa Payment card (only available to EEA users).

“Ethereum stands out from other cryptocurrencies because whilst it is a digital currency, it has an entirely different protocol to Bitcoin. Besides using Ether to transfer money, it allows you to execute smart contracts. These smart contracts will have the effect of eventually eliminating the middle man from contracts, resulting in savings for the consumer,” Dmitry Lazarichev, co-founder of Wirex, said.

Launched in 2014 with an $18 million ICO, Ethereum is the second most valuable cryptocurrency after bitcoin. The Ethereum white paper was released in late 2013 and proposed “a decentralised platform that runs smart contracts”, boasting the functionality of the Bitcoin blockchain but with wider capabilities. Ethereum represents the second generation of blockchain technology.

The popularity of Ethereum has been driven by the support of large corporates who have seen the value of the smart contract protocol. The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) was founded last year with the aim of connecting large companies to technology vendors in order to facilitate projects using the blockchain and has grown to include a significant number of Fortune 500 companies.

With its addition, users would be able to buy, sell and spend it on the Wirex platform like their other cryptos (Litecoin, XRP, and Bitcoin.

“We are pleased that we can now offer this popular crypto, but our product growth does not stop here. We have some interesting new services in the pipeline and our recently earned FCA e-money licence has opened the doors for even more products and locations in the near future,” Matveev concluded.

To celebrate the launch of the ETH wallet, Wirex has teamed up with CryptoDisrupt to donate 20ETH to a charity chosen by the cryptocurrency community. Crypto fans can nominate a charity of their choice by September 11; the winning charity will be selected randomly on September 14.