Visa’s partners will be able to settle transactions made in fiat currency with the use of USDC on its payment network.
Visa to Use USDC to Process Transactions
Visa announced on Monday that it would allow the use of USD coins in cryptocurrency to process transactions on its payment network. This is the latest sign of the increasing adoption of digital currencies in the mainstream financial industry.
Visa has launched a pilot program with crypto.com, a payment and crypto platform, and plans to make this option available to other partners later this year.
The US dollar coin (USDC) is a stable currency cryptocurrency, the value of which is directly linked to the US dollar.
Visa joins the Crypto Adoption Trend
Visa took this step because big financial companies like BNY Mellon, BlackRock Inc, and Mastercard Inc accepted some digital coins, which has sparked predictions that cryptocurrencies will become an integral part of investment portfolios.
Tesla boss Elon Musk said last week that customers could use Bitcoin to purchase their electric cars, which is an important step in the commercial application of cryptocurrency.
Cuy Sheffield, Head of Cryptocurrency at Visa, said, “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.”
Traditionally, when customers use the Crypto.com Visa card to purchase coffee, they have to convert the digital currency contained in the cryptocurrency wallet to a traditional currency. Cryptocurrency wallets deposit traditional fiat currencies in bank accounts and transfer them to Visa at the end of the day to process all transactions, adding to the cost and complexity of the business.
Visa’s latest move will use the Ethereum blockchain, eliminating the need to convert digital coins into traditional currencies to complete transactions.
Visa said it has partnered with digital asset bank Anchorage and completed the first transaction this month. Crypto.com has sent USDC to Visa’s Ethereum address in Anchorage.
