Bitcoin payments processing company, BitPay, announced on January 5th that some providers of European digital currency debit cards have had to put their services on hold because of a problem with the card issuing company. WaveCrest Holdings Ltd, which supplies the cards, has had its membership of the Visa prepaid debit card programme terminated because it had apparently not complied with Visa’s operating rules.

WaveCrest was told to close all its prepaid debit card accounts, but it will refund any balances remaining on the cards, together with any order fees charged to customers who bought a card after December 1st, 2017.

As well as BitPay, cryptocurrency service providers Bitwala and Cryptopay were affected and will have to suspend operations and return funds. BitPay stated that the suspension applies to several of their prepaid Visa debit cards, as well as to those servicing cryptocurrencies. Their American customers would not be affected, however, as the shutdown applies only to European cardholders. BitPay says they already have alternative card issuers in the pipeline.

Of the other two affected companies, London\'s Cryptopay announced that it was already in negotiation with another card provider, while Berlin\'s Bitwala tweeted that it would discuss the problem in an emergency meeting. Other Visa card issuers are not affected by the termination and can continue to issue digital currency-based cards.