On Monday, Visa made a big announcement. From now on, it will be allowing the use of cryptocurrency USD coin for settling transactions. Arguably, Visa is one of the most prominent payment platforms in the finance industry. Therefore, this company allowing crypto payments is a sign of increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency in the mainstream market.
In a recent interview with Reuters, the company said it had launched the pilot program with payment and crypto platform with Crypto.com. They are also working on expanding and offering this option to more partners later this year.
Visa’s step will further boost Cryptocurrency
For a very long time, there has been skepticism about the future of cryptocurrency. Till now, many consider it to be a scam and don’t see any future in it. Interestingly, Crypto is proving the market wrong by creating a space for itself.
Internationally, Visa is wildly used by the majority and many major banks are tied to this. When they stepped in and promoted crypto, faces turned.
As per the recent news, Bitcoin, the most popular crypto coin, jumped to a one-week high. It rose as much as 4.5% to $58,300 and heading back toward a record-high above $61,000 hit earlier this month.
Additionally, PayPal also announced that US customers can now easily pay with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“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, said.
The Future Of Cryptocurrency
Before discussing the future of crypto, it is important to understand why Visa felt the need to do so?
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.
This step by Visa will now reduce the hassle and complexity of converting digital money to traditional money for a successful transaction.
It is clearly visible that big organizations like Visa, PayPal are promoting crypto. Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, also announced that the customers can buy Tesla cars and bitcoin will be accepted as payment.
In 2018, PayPal’s competitor Square launched a feature for Bitcoin on its Cash App.
All of these are indicators of the growing acceptance of cryptocurrency in the mainstream market. And this is not going to stop any time sooner.
From an Indian market perspective, most people are oblivious to how crypto works. But things are changing as bitcoin is gaining momentum. There is a word on the street that soon, an announcement will be made by the government regarding some guidelines for Crypto.
Companies like Crypto.com are playing a huge role in promoting and accelerating this transition from traditional to digital currency.
