Groestlcoin [GRS] pumps by 150% following Mastercard-backed debit card announcement

Little known Groestlcoin [GRS] saw a massive price pump over the past 24 hours, climbing by over 150 percent against the US dollar. The pump followed a tweet by Groestlcoin, announcing a debit card backed by the financial services giant, Mastercard.

Despite no confirmation from Mastercard’s side, the coin shot up the global market, becoming one of the coins in the top 100 in the process. Groestlcoin added that the blockchain payments company, PolisPay, was also involved in the debit card project. PolisPay had partnered with Mastercard previously, launching a debit card that allowed users to convert their cryptocurrency into fiat.

Groestlcoin added that the debit card can be used in retail payments with any vendor that accepts Mastercard. It can also be used to withdraw fiat currency through ATMs that comply with the card-provider.

The tweet stated,

“First Debit Card for Groestlcoin $GRS is here! And is backed by MasterCard®! http://www.groestlcoin.org/groestlcoin-debit-card/ … » Use it in any retail/online shop that accepts MasterCard debit cards. » Withdraw cash at any MasterCard-compatible ATM. We want to thank @PolisPayApp for making this possible!”

In March 2018, Groestlcoin was added to the PolisPay payment platform in order to promote the use of cryptocurrencies in real-world cases. Through this addition, merchants would get paid in fiat while the users were charged in GRS from their accumulated balance.

Beginning at 1100 UTC on 11 March, the coin’s price shot up from $0.23 by a massive 216% to reach $0.73 in less than 8 hours. Following a brief drop to $0.47, the coin surged again to reach the price of $0.61, at press time. Groestlcoin posed a market cap of $44.56 million, while the market cap a day prior stood at $17.14 million.

Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, hailed this partnership as a feat of crypto-adoption. He tweeted,

“Progress. Slowly but surely. What can’t be stopped will spread!”

However, the larger crypto-community did not share CZ’s optimism and stated that this ploy by Groestlcoin was nothing new as similar services were offered by other crypto-centric companies.

Adam Kracík, a self-described ICO reviewer tweeted,

“This card is useless – it works same as your credit card. It is only USD or EUR. You fill this card by the same process as withdrawal from any fiat-crypto exchange. If you withdraw USD from Kraken to your bank account, you can use your crypto in the exact same way as this.”

EddieBong, stated on Reddit,

“I feel so sorry for everyone buying in – this is in no way backed by mastercard – it is just a pure lie. This is similar to withdraw from for example Kraken or many other fiat gateways. This is just a trick :)”

Additionally, GRS will also be integrated with Japanese vending machines following its tie-up with IvendPay, a payment solution for vending machines. This will allow Groestlcoin to be used as a payment method on 5.5 million vending machines in the country.