VISA TO ALLOW PAYMENTS USING CRYPTOCURRENCY AFTER ‘SEEING DEMAND’

Mon 29 March 2021:

Major payments platform Visa Inc on Monday announced that it will allow the use of cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its network in a move to promote digital currencies and bitcoin. Visa’s pilot program was launched with Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency payment platform, and it plans to expand the offer to more partners this year.

The USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin cryptocurrency backed by the US dollar. Visa partnered with digital asset bank Anchorage and completed the first transaction this month with Crypto.com.

With the latest move, Visa has accepted the financial turn sparking predictions that cryptocurrencies will become a regular part of investment portfolios. Major firms including BNY Mellon, BlackRock Inc and Mastercard Inc have already embraced the digital coins move.

“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,” Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, told Reuters.

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk had announced last week that customers can buy Tesla electric vehicles with bitcoin.

Top financial firms are helping to validate bitcoin. Payments giants Square (SQ) and PayPal (PYPL) let their users buy and sell it. Credit card processing behemoths Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) are also embracing cryptocurrencies.

BlackRock (BLK) and Bank of New York Mellon (BK) have started to dabble in bitcoin, as well.

Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency getting a boost. Smaller digital currencies such as ethereum, litecoin and stellar have soared in 2021.