Credit card giant Visa is reportedly partnering with a growing number of crypto platforms as consumers embrace payments using digital assets.
Visa’s head of crypto Cuy Sheffield tells NDTV in an interview that the world’s largest payment processor has more than doubled the number of its crypto partners in the past 18 months.
“At Visa, the scale and scope of our work in crypto has grown dramatically. The number of people cross-functionally at Visa working on crypto in some capacity is now in the hundreds – up from just a handful of employees…
Over the last few years, we’ve also seen our clients’ outlook on crypto evolve, from skepticism to awareness, to an understanding that crypto will likely impact their existing business in some way.”
To date, Visa has joined forces with over 60 crypto platforms, including industry giants FTX, BlockFi, Crypto.com, COINBASE and Binance, enabling consumers to convert and use digital assets to pay for goods and services with ease.
“Crypto-linked cards make it easy for consumers to convert and spend digital currencies, without requiring coffee shops, dry cleaners, or grocery stores to directly accept crypto at the checkout.
All the conversions from crypto to fiat happen instantly, behind the scenes. In-store, online, it’s as easy as a standard Visa transaction.
Consumers that want to use crypto have the opportunity to convert and spend their digital currency while going about their everyday activities.”
According to Sheffield, Visa has already processed $3.5 billion worth of crypto transactions despite how new the nascent crypto card program is.
“That’s a small portion of total spend on Visa cards, but when you consider that these programs didn’t exist in a meaningful way a year ago, it’s an indication that they’re starting to gain traction.
At the end of the day, we want to serve as a bridge connecting the crypto ecosystem with our global network of 80 million merchant locations and more than 15,000 financial institutions.”
