The firm claims that its card - slated to launch later this quarter - offers the world's first fingerprint-secured, offline storage platform for bitcoin.

In addition, an NFC chip will let the card communicate with compatible phones and tablets, allowing users to make P2P transfers of the currency.

Chaya Hendrick, president and CEO, SmartMetric, says: "Bitcoins can be stored and transferred, all on the card, and with a level of biometric fingerprint security never before possible."