Visa announces that it will now permit transactions via cryptocurrency stablecoin USD Coin.
In Short:
● Visa has announced support for USD Coin as a means for carrying out transactions on its payments network.
● The announcement comes as a result of Visa’s increasing interest in the cryptocurrency industry.
According to Reuters, Visa just declared that it would allow users to perform transactions on its payments network with USD Coin Cryptocurrency. Earlier this month, a trial was carried out where Crypto.com sent a USDC transaction to Visa’s Ethereum address at crypto custody service Anchorage.
Today’s announcement of Visa embracing the use of Ethereum eliminates the hassle of converting digital coins into traditional money before performing the transaction – therefore simplifying the processes for scores of businesses.
The USD Coin is a stablecoin—a crypto asset that is pegged to the US Dollar.
This move certainly isn’t a first in the industry. Other major establishments such as PayPal, BNY Mellon, and MicroStrategy, have all embraced the crypto industry with open arms, and their support doesn’t seem to be fading away anytime soon. Just this month, news about Electric Automaker Tesla’s hefty $1.5 billion Bitcoin investment came to light, triggering a significant shift in crypto industry sentiment. This proves how valuable cryptocurrencies are and how they’re successfully catching large investors’ eyes.
The head of crypto at Visa, Cuy Sheffield, states that: “We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers,”
This surge in demand is significantly prominent in Latin America, where consumers not only desire cryptocurrency access as a hedge against rapidly inflating national currencies but also for everyday spending purposes. Data from a recent Visa survey suggests that 25% of all credit cardholders in Latin America expressed interest in cryptocurrency experimentation, provided that their payment processors made the option available to them.
However, Visa’s adventures in the crypto industry aren’t stopping just here. Visa CEO Al Kelly hinted that the payment giant is also exploring how to “enable the purchase of Bitcoin on Visa credentials.”