Bitget Wallet, a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, has launched a service allowing freelancers, remote workers and salary earners to receive dollar and euro payments without requiring a US or European residential address.
The product, called Virtual Account, enables users to receive international bank transfers into accounts held in their names, potentially easing access to foreign currencies for Nigerians and other users in emerging markets who face restrictions opening overseas bank accounts.
The company announced the launch on Tuesday, saying the accounts are provided by Noah, a licensed stablecoin payments company.
The service provides account details that support transfers through the US Automated Clearing House (ACH) and Fedwire systems, Europe’s Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) network and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
Funds received are automatically converted into USDT or USDC, two dollar-pegged stablecoins, and credited to users’ wallets. Senders see the recipient as the account holder.
The launch comes as freelancers and remote workers across Nigeria increasingly seek ways to receive payments from international clients, amid the challenges associated with accessing conventional foreign banking services.
Under the arrangement, users can receive payments directly into their accounts but cannot yet make outbound bank transfers through the service. Bitget Wallet said the functionality would be introduced in the coming months.
In the meantime, recipients can spend their funds using the Bitget Wallet Card or QR payments, transfer them to other users, or allocate them to the wallet’s earning products, crypto assets and tokenised real-world assets.
Bitget Wallet said transaction fees could be as low as $2 on a $500 transfer, equivalent to about 0.4 percent. The World Bank estimates that the global average cost of sending remittances remains around six percent, although costs vary by corridor and transfer method.
Traditional cross-border payments often pass through multiple correspondent banks, adding processing time and fees. The new service seeks to simplify the process by connecting international payment systems to a self-custodial wallet.
“Crypto wallets are expanding beyond storage to provide essential international banking channels,” said Alvin Kan, chief operating officer of Bitget Wallet.
“By embedding payment rails directly into self-custodial wallets, we offer users in emerging markets a direct path into the global financial system.”
Shah Ramezani, founder and chief executive of Noah, said dollar and euro accounts had “traditionally been out of reach for many users in these regions”.
He said the integration gives users “foreign account access and cross-border settlement while maintaining sole custody of their funds.”
In Nigeria, freelancers can use the account details on invoices to receive payments from US and European clients through ACH, Fedwire or SEPA, according to the company.
In South Africa, remote workers receiving foreign salaries can access their earnings and spend locally using the wallet’s card. In Morocco, contractors and families can receive payments from European Union clients and relatives through SEPA-linked euro accounts.
However, the service does not provide users with conventional bank deposits. Funds received are converted into stablecoins, meaning recipients hold digital assets rather than dollar or euro balances in a traditional bank account.
Bitget Wallet said a $300 million protection fund backs user assets, although the announcement did not provide further details on the fund’s coverage or the conditions under which users could make claims.
The Virtual Account service forms part of the company’s Onchain Payments Matrix, which includes card payments, QR transactions and transfers. It is available through the Bitget Wallet application.
The company is also offering transaction-fee refunds to the first 1,000 eligible users who make qualifying deposits.
Bitget Wallet said it has more than 100 million users globally.
Wasiu Alli is a business, economics cum data journalist with strong expertise covering macro trends, capital markets, government policies, corporate earnings and comparative economics analysis. Alli turns raw data into trends that not only tells compelling stories but nudges investors to make valued and informed decisions. He’s an alumnus of Lagos State University and trained at Lagos Business School. He formerly heads the Companies and Markets desk at BusinessDay where he writes and supervises the production of well researched articles on earnings updates, corporate sectoral comparisons, market intelligence as well as interviews with C-suite executives.
