In an official announcement on Wednesday, Visa announced their attention to process its crypto holdings and that the total value would be over $1 billion in the first half of 2021. Furthermore, they also announced that they were to partner with 50 major companies in the crypto industry and crypto card programs, enabling users to convert and spend digital currency at 70 million merchants around the world.
The company will keep connecting the crypto economy to its network, supporting the digital changing of financial services, and developing and adopting the cryptocurrency industry as part of its business.
Considering the size of expenses on Visa crypto-linked cards, the company declared that:
“it’s clear that the crypto community sees value in linking digital currencies to Visa’s global network.”
It was also emphasized that its digital currency support does not demand global merchants to receive cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) directly though. As previously reported, Visa has been working with major crypto players like cryptocurrency exchange platform Crypto.com to permit a crypto settlement system for fiat transactions. The company has also been closely working with other major crypto companies like FTX exchange, Coinbase, CoinZoom, and others.
In addition, it was also affirmed that stablecoins which are cryptocurrencies indexed to the value of other assets or fiat currencies like the United States dollar are outlining its developer-friendly features combined with the reliability of fiat-backed reserves. The company clarifies it, writing:
“We’ve been busy at Visa, connecting the crypto economy to our ‘network-of-networks,’ a strategy designed to add value to all forms of money movement, whether on the Visa network or beyond.”
Last year, it was a huge move into the crypto industry, making partners with Goldman Sachs-backed blockchain company Circle make its USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin compatible with certain credit cards.
Visa has since reiterated its engagement to crypto payments and fiat on-ramps and its specific focus on stablecoin-based integrations.
