From crypto exchanges to financial super apps: how crypto cards are bridging TradFi and digital assets

The boundaries between traditional finance and the digital asset economy are becoming increasingly difficult to define. Crypto exchanges are moving beyond their original role as venues for buying and selling digital assets, while banks and other traditional financial institutions are increasingly adding crypto investment and related services to their offerings.

For Vugar Usi, CEO of MEXC, this convergence is not simply about crypto companies becoming more like banks. It is about building a broader financial experience in which users can trade, save, earn and spend through the same platform. ‘Two or three years ago, if I were asked, I would say that in the future crypto exchanges will become a bank-like organisation’, Vugar says. ‘But today we see even banks are becoming crypto exchange-like organisations’. MEXC is positioning itself as a ‘Trade Everything’ platform, with an ambition to give users access to financial opportunities that go beyond crypto.

From crypto exchange to financial platform

This shift reflects a broader evolution in how crypto platforms see their role in consumers’ financial lives. Exchanges are increasingly looking beyond trading towards savings, earning products, payments, and other financial services. MEXC, for example, says its offering now extends beyond digital assets, including stock investment opportunities alongside its core trading business. At the same time, Vugar stresses that the company does not consider itself a bank, but rather a broader financial institution offering a range of bank-like and brokerage-like services under one umbrella.

Regulation is also becoming part of this transition. The exchange’s CEO points to MEXC’s increased investment in compliance and its engagement with European and Middle Eastern regulators, including its process towards obtaining a MiCA licence. For crypto platforms, regulation is therefore not only about meeting requirements, but increasingly about creating the foundations for a wider financial offering.

Crypto cards: where on-chain meets everyday finance

One of the clearest examples of this convergence is the rise of crypto cards. MEXC’s Global Card is designed to close a gap that Vugar experienced personally as a largely on-chain user: while investing, earning, and saving could happen in crypto, spending still often required converting assets into fiat and moving funds through the traditional banking system.

The card is intended to remove that extra step. Users can hold their assets until the point of purchase rather than selling Bitcoin, Ethereum, or stablecoins days or weeks in advance. For him, this is particularly important in a market where asset prices can change significantly even over short periods.

The proposition is also about familiarity. Crypto cards allow users to interact with digital assets through a payment experience they already understand: tap a card, use Apple Pay or Samsung Pay, and pay at a familiar point of sale. Vugar sees this as potentially extending crypto beyond its native audience, including consumers who have been reluctant to enter the market because of its perceived complexity or volatility.

The distinction between on-chain and off-chain is central to this model. An on-chain transaction is recorded and verified on a blockchain, while traditional card payments involve multiple intermediaries between the consumer and merchant.

Making crypto payments useful for merchants

For crypto cards to become more than a niche consumer product, however, merchants also need a reason to adopt them. MEXC currently operates its Global Card on Visa’s payment processing layer, meaning merchants can accept it across the existing Visa network without requiring a separate device.

The longer-term ambition is to make crypto payments attractive from the merchant side as well. Vugar points to incentives and, particularly, faster settlement as potential benefits. Traditional card settlement can take considerably longer, while on-chain transactions can settle much faster for merchants; that could translate into improved cash flow as well as a reason to actively encourage crypto-based payments.

The response from merchants, according to him, has been increasingly positive, particularly in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other markets where alternative payment methods are already gaining traction.

Towards a financial ‘super app’

Ultimately, MEXC’s CEO sees crypto cards as part of a much larger transition rather than an end product. Their appeal lies in making digital assets usable in everyday financial life, while simultaneously bringing traditional financial services and infrastructure closer to the crypto economy. The lines between TradFi and digital assets, in other words, are not simply moving closer together. They are increasingly becoming invisible.

To learn more about his vision, we encourage you to watch our video interview and share your feedback with us.

About Vugar Usi

 

Vugar Usi is an award-winning business leader with 15 years of experience across Fortune 500 companies and technology unicorns. As CEO of MEXC, he leads the company’s ‘Infinite Opportunities’ vision, driving global compliance, market readiness, and product innovation to strengthen MEXC’s position as your 0-fee gateway to infinite opportunity.

 

 

 

About MEXC

Founded in 2018, MEXC is a global cryptocurrency exchange built as your 0-fee gateway to infinite opportunities. We remove barriers to participation by offering 0 trading fees, deep liquidity, and one of the broadest selections of digital assets in the market. As a global trading hub, MEXC connects users to emerging opportunities across regions, chains, and market cycles - enabling them to discover earlier, act faster, and trade freely.