Tango Card Adds Bitcoin as Latest Reward Option

Venture-backed rewards-as-a-service startup Tango Card will now offer bitcoin as a reward option alongside gift cards for popular brands such as Amazon, Fandango, Starbucks and Zappos.

The reward option is the result of Tango Card's decision to integrate a new API from bitcoin merchant processing service provider Snapcard. Called the MassPay API, the platform will allow Tango Card users to select bitcoin as a desired reward on its e-reward platform, thereby sending the funds to their Snapcard wallet.

According to Snapcard co-founder Ioannis Giannaros, the partnership is just one demonstration of the API, which the company described as a back-end payments management system to complement its front-end tools for accepting bitcoin, litecoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Giannaros told CoinDesk:

"We helped Tango Card integrate and then, after building the API, we recognized that this had better implications and use cases for large enterprises."

The MassPay API, according to the company, allows merchants to hold funds in US dollars, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars and euros, before converting those funds into bitcoin and sending payments to SMS phones and email addresses via an API call.

Fund recipients will then be able to cash out bitcoin in 15 local currencies through instant and next-day transfers from the Snapcard wallet for a 0.25% fee.

For now, however, Tango Card VP of partnerships Nat Salvione suggested his company will focus on bitcoin as a means to improve its rewards platform.

“Bitcoin is a fantastic addition to our rewards catalog,” Salvione said. “It is truly frictionless, global and, most importantly, desired by the participants in our customers rewards programs."

Tango Card has so far raised $10.3m in three rounds, with its most recent $3.3 Series B taking place in early 2014.

Gift box image via Shutterstock