Tag: USD Coin

Visa says spending on crypto-linked cards topped $1 bn in first half this year, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Personal Finance

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Visa Inc said on Wednesday its customers spent more than $1 billion on its crypto-linked cards in the first half of this year, as the payments processor takes steps to make crypto transactions smoother.

The company said it was partnering with 50 cryptocurrency platforms to make it easier for customers to convert and spend digital currencies at 70 million merchants worldwide.

The move is in line with Visa‘s broader acceptance of digital currencies. In March, the company announced it will allow the use of the USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network.

Investor sentiment on cryptocurrencies has somewhat soured recently, with regulatory crackdowns in China and elsewhere. Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, has seen a punishing slide following the euphoria earlier this year which took it to record highs.

However, a clutch of high profile names are continuing to strengthen their involvement with the digital assets. Last week, Japan’s investment giant SoftBank Group Corp invested $200 million in Mercado Bitcoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Latin America.

Wells Fargo & Co said in May it would onboard an actively managed cryptocurrency strategy for its wealthy clients, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc launched a crypto trading team the same month.



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Visa moves to allow payment settlements using cryptocurrency

Banking & Finance

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Visa has said it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry.

The company told Reuters it had launched the pilot programme with payment and crypto platform Crypto.com and plans to offer the option to more partners later this year.

Bitcoin, the most popular crypto coin, jumped to a one-week high on the news on Monday, rising as much as 4.5 per cent to $58,300 and heading back toward a record-high above $61,000 hit earlier this month.

Visa subsequently confirmed the news in a statement.

The USD Coin (USDC) is a stable coin cryptocurrency whose value is pegged directly to the US dollar.

Visa’s move comes as finance firms including BNY Mellon, BlackRock and Mastercard take steps to make more use of cryptocurrencies for investment and payment purposes.

Tesla boss Elon Musk, a major proponent of cryptocurrencies, said last week that customers can buy its electric vehicles with bitcoin, hoping to encourage more day-to-day use of the digital currency.

“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,” said Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa.

Traditionally, if a customer chooses to use a Crypto.com Visa card to pay for a coffee, the digital currency held in a cryptocurrency wallet needs to be converted into traditional money.

The cryptocurrency wallet will deposit traditional fiat currency in a bank account, to be wired to Visa at the end of the day to settle any transactions, adding cost and complexity for businesses.

Visa’s latest step, which will use the ethereum blockchain, strips out the need to convert digital coin into traditional money in order for the transaction to be settled.

Visa said it has partnered with digital asset bank Anchorage and completed the first transaction this month — with Crypto.com sending USDC to Visa’s Ethereum address at Anchorage.

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