• Coinbase’s partnership with Bitkey, Block’s self-custody bitcoin wallet, will span six continents.
• The platforms will integrate Coinbase Pay to allow users buy/sell or transfer Bitcoin to their Bitkey self-custody wallet.
• Coinbase said the collaboration will allow customers to easily buy, store and manage their BTC.

Coinbase and Bitkey, the self-custody Bitcoin (BTC) wallet built by the Block, Inc., have announced a global partnership that will see the two companies promote self-custody usage.

The partnership, which will span six continents, will see Bitkey users buy and sell BTC on Coinbase, as well as transfer their holdings to their self-custody Bitkey wallets. The wallet includes a mobile app, hardware device and set of recovery tools, the companies said in a blog announcement on Thursday.

According to the announcement, Coinbase and Bitkey will leverage Coinbase Pay to allow customers easy access to fiat-to-crypto onramps, the US-based crypto exchange noted in the blog post. It is a key component to powering the next adoption phase of the Bitcoin economy.

“At Bitkey, we’re building a self-custody bitcoin wallet designed to empower the next 100 million people to truly own and manage their Bitcoin – safely and easily,” Lindsey Grossman, Business Lead at Bitkey said.

“Partners play a key role in bringing self-custody to a wider group of people around the world, and we are incredibly proud to have partnered with leading companies like Coinbase to make self-custody both secure and easy to use.”

Bitkey launches global beta program

The collaboration between Coinbase and Bitkey is kicking off as the self-custody wallet launches its global beta program. 

Customers in the beta program will be able to transfer their Bitcoin from centralized exchanges to Bitkey’s self-custody wallet. Buying and selling as well as direct transfers between Coinbase and Bitkey will be enabled when the wallet launches to the public later this year.

As noted above, Bitkey and Coinbase will offer the service to customers in six continents. Some of the countries include the US, Canada, the UK, Brazil, and Australia.