Crypto.com becomes a principal member of the Visa network

Crypto.com becomes a principal member of the Visa network

Crypto.com is now the latest cryptocurrency exchange and payment service to join the Visa network.

According to a press statement issued on Wednesday, Crypto.com has inked a global partnership with the credit/debit card payment giant which includes becoming a principal member of Visa’s network in Australia.

As part of the press release, Crypto.com revealed that the collaboration with Visa was in line with the company’s efforts to expand the reach of its crypto Visa card.

Crypto.com’s Visa card is already used in more than 30 countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, as well as nations in Europe and across the Asia-Pacific.

Crypto.com plans to begin direct issuance of its Visa card in the country, and the company says it will use its presence in Australia to pursue greater market penetration for its card service across the world.

Apart from its physical Visa card product, Crypto.com will also reportedly begin to issue virtual cards within Europe.

Commenting on the Visa partnership, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek remarked:

“Signing the global partnership with Visa and becoming a principal member with the world’s leader in digital payments affirms our commitment to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency.”

As part of the official communique, the company also announced the rollout of its fiat lending program, dubbed “Spending Power.” With this new product, Crypto.com Visa cardholders will be able to use the cryptocurrency balance in their wallet as loan collateral and spend fiat in merchant platforms that support Visa payments.

Earlier in March, Crypto.com launched a $200 million crypto investment fund to support startups in the industry. Crypto.com is also sponsoring the Aston Martin Formula 1 racing team as the British carmaker marks its return to the F1 circuit after a 61-year hiatus.

Visa Is Planning To Enable Cryptocurrency Transactions

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Key Takeaways Visa is planning to add support for cryptocurrency buying and spending, according to CEO Al Kelly.

The company is also working with more than 35 fiat-backed cryptocurrency projects.

Mastercard and PayPal have their own crypto efforts underway, which may have catalyzed Visa’s plans.

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Visa CEO Al Kelly says that the payments giant is planning to enable cryptocurrency buying and spending on its network.

Users Will Buy and Spend Crypto

Kelly stated during Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast that his firm has two strategies related to Bitcoin. First, it plans to “enable the purchase of bitcoin on Visa credentials.” That implies that retail users who use the company’s cards will be able to buy Bitcoin.

Second, Visa plans to work with Bitcoin wallets to allow BTC to be “translated into a fiat currency” and used at locations where Visa is traditionally accepted. This means that Bitcoin could be accepted at 70 million businesses that support the company’s cards.

Kelly also noted that Visa is working with about 35 different cryptocurrency projects, particularly “fiat backed” cryptocurrencies. That suggests Visa is interested in stablecoins. In fact, it is already known that it is working with Circle USD on this matter.

Kelly noted that he does not know whether cryptocurrencies will ultimately succeed or fail. Rather, he says that Visa does “not pick winners and losers” and that the company intends to get in on the trend in case crypto becomes a more popular payment method.

Mastercard, PayPal Have Competing Plans

Competing payments giant Mastercard announced similar plans in February, suggesting that it will initially support stablecoin transactions. Meanwhile, PayPal added crypto buying and selling last year and is planning to expand those features. Those competing efforts may be a catalyst for Visa’s plans.

While some see this news as a landmark for cryptocurrency adoption, others may see it as undermining the goals of Bitcoin.

Visa will likely have significant control over its cryptocurrency activity, with the ability to block users and transactions. Bitcoin, on the other hand, was designed to escape those restrictions.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this author held less than $75 of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins.

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From Bitcoin to NFTs, why institutions are adopting crypto

Opinion

Alternative Lending

Digital Banking

Savings and Investment

Cryptocurrencies are increasingly becoming an accepted part of the financial landscape with institutions now realising they must adopt them, writes Ivan Soto-Wright

Image source: Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels

The global perception of cryptocurrency has shifted dramatically in recent years — once being seen as a fringe investment class, they are now known for having a multitude of use cases including in low-cost remittances, peer-to-peer lending, and high interest savings accounts.

With cryptocurrencies increasingly becoming an accepted part of the financial landscape, institutions are realising they must adopt this young asset-class, or risk losing relevance. Broadly speaking, I believe the reason for increased adoption amongst businesses can be split into the following three camps.

Surge in consumer popularity and understanding

Until very recently, only those with a strong understanding of the underlying technology felt comfortable participating in crypto in any meaningful way. However, as functionality and awareness has grown, so too has adoption and, in many instances, value.

This came to a climax last year, when — against the backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty — Bitcoin’s explosive rise in price drew an enormous amount of attention from the press and public, making the year something of an inflection point in terms of global interest.

The recent surge in consumer interest can also be credited to prominent public figures endorsing cryptocurrencies, as well as firms such as Mastercard, Tesla and JP Morgan, all of whom have signalled strong interest in the space. Last month, Mastercard announced that it will “start supporting select cryptocurrencies” and create “more opportunities for shoppers and merchants…to transact in an entirely new form of payment.”

Around the same time, Tesla also announced that it will soon accept Bitcoin as payment (shortly after adding $1.5bn worth of BTC to its treasury). Naturally, these were widely viewed as endorsements for the idea that this emerging asset class will play a major part in disrupting the traditional financial system.

This heightened awareness has led to a surge in interest which, in turn, has put pressure on businesses to offer services allowing their users access to crypto.

Say if a consumer is looking for a new bank account – all other things being equal, are they going to choose the option that offers crypto exposure, or the one without? While not everyone will immediately want to explore the crypto space, we’re increasingly seeing that products and services that incorporate crypto are more attractive to consumers.

A focus on security and speed

One of the major benefits of blockchain technology is its ability to enforce systemic transparency, making it very difficult for fraud to go undetected. The open and decentralised nature of public blockchains means that transactions are tracked from start to finish, network-wide, removing any doubt around the provenance of funds, as well as removing the need for an intermediary. Additionally, chargebacks are technically impossible, as all transactions are final and immutable.

A key pain point for businesses operating within the traditional financial system is that money transfers typically take hours or days, are labour-intensive, and expensive. Blockchain technology can cut transaction times from days to seconds, and fees from dollars or even hundreds of dollars to fractions of a cent

For businesses in the financial services space, speed and safety are both paramount — yet they don’t often go hand-in-hand. For an industry that largely relies on outdated, slow and clunky legacy systems, the infrastructure that MoonPay and others offer can be a game-changer. Speed and costs can be lowered without compromises in security, all to the benefit of their users.

Access to emerging markets and trends

Given most cryptocurrencies are hosted on decentralised ledgers, users don’t need a traditional bank account to be able to access or engage with them — access is open. Many perhaps don’t see this as an important differentiation point in more developed economies like the U.K or U.S. where banking access is prevalent, but the reality is that an estimated 1.7 billion people are classed as ‘unbanked’ worldwide and don’t have the opportunities that we are so fortunate to have.

Crypto is fundamentally open and accessible, and as it becomes more mainstream, businesses can begin to offer much-needed services to markets that have previously been out of reach.

But crypto is more than just a way for businesses to enter new markets it also allows them to future-proof their offerings and increases agility in catering to emerging consumer trends. Recently, a number of entirely new types of marketplaces have emerged – a prime example being NFTs.

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) act as a digital certificate of ownership for any digital asset, such as a Tweet, piece of artwork, or an album, and have very quickly become something resembling a mainstream financial product. Businesses are already starting to cater to this surge in interest in the NFT space.

Taco Bell, for example, just had tremendous success with its ‘NFTacoBell’ collection of taco gifs, with prices reaching more than $3,600 per gif.In the art space, the first digital-only art auction by Christie’s sold its first digital piece of artwork for £50m — people are seeing real value in these digital products. Businesses that have been quick to integrate crypto offerings into their platforms have seen significant surges in revenue, while those that have been slower to adopt may, to some degree, be falling behind.

We’re on the precipice of a new financial age where crypto is a central pillar.

Businesses, large and small, have already started to embrace this new technology, engage with new markets, serve the needs of changing consumer mindsets and ultimately become more profitable. As is always the way, those who are slow on the uptake risk missing out in the long term.