Casa, a popular app for offering cryptocurrency self-custody, has added Bitcoin buying and holding support features to its mobile application, the company announced on Thursday.
The users of the platform can now directly purchase Bitcoin on the Casa App, making the Payments using Apple Pay. The new feature is currently available on iOS, but the startup assured that it is developing the same app for Android as well.
With the new offering, the Colorado-based startup is mainly taking on the major exchanges where the process of purchasing Bitcoins are very complicated.
“For too long, purchasing Bitcoin has been a complicated, multi-step process,” Casa stated. “Every stage added more friction to what should be a simple transaction: from wiring money to an exchange on the other side of the world, to sending proofs of ID that companies can use to spy on you or spam you, to slogging through endless technicalities.”
A Premium Rate for Instant Services
To facilitate an instant purchase of these services, the startup partnered with Wyre, an online payments API provider. For every transaction, the Bitcoin buyer has to pay a flat fee of $0.30, along with other standard debit card fees - 2.9 percent for US-issued cards and 3.9 percent for international cards.
In addition to that, each purchase will also attract mining fees for processing as the transactions will be made directly on-chain.
“By purchasing bitcoin through Casa, you are secure by default. You are in control by default. It’s your bitcoin, and no one else’s,” Casa CEO, Nick Neuman said.
For now, the services will be limited to the United States except for the state of New York, Texas, Connecticut, and a few other states, which are still not on the list. However, the startup is focusing on expansion in both domestic and global markets.
