Visa chief reveals details of the company’s crypto strategy

Visa, the payments company, has set itself the goal of leveraging opportunities related to new technologies and methods of transferring funds. This was stated by its chief executive Alfred Kelly in a Fortune podcast Fortune.

Visa follows a multi-pronged strategy, including bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, as well as fiat-backed tokens and stablecoins.

“We are trying to accomplish two tasks. The first is to enable the purchase of the first cryptocurrency through accounts in the payment system. The second is to work with bitcoin wallets to convert coins into fiat and spend them at any of the 70 million locations worldwide that accept Visa”, Kelly said.

The head of the company noted the substantial potential for cryptocurrencies to become a payment method, especially in developing economies.

According to Kelly, they are working with 35 players in the digital currency space.

The Visa CEO suggested that cryptocurrencies could achieve “extremely widespread adoption” in the next five years, but did not rule out the possibility that interest could wane.

Alfred Kelly presented Visa’s cryptocurrency strategy during an investor conference in January. It envisions forging partnerships with wallet operators and exchanges. The top executive also allowed for the possibility of using cryptocurrencies as a payment option without converting them to fiat.

In December 2020, Visa connected its global network to USDC. Further plans include issuing a card that would allow merchants to directly accept stablecoins as payment.

In February, the company began testing an API suite that would allow traditional bank customers to buy and sell digital assets.

A similar strategy in the crypto space is being pursued by Visa’s competitor, Mastercard. This year the payments network plans to open for merchantsthe ability to accept payments in digital assets directly, without the support of cryptocurrency card issuers or processors.

Mastercard bets on stablecoins and national digital currencies and doubts the suitability of Bitcoin for payments.

PayPal’s head Dan Schulman promised to enable the use of cryptocurrencies in settlements with any of the 29 million merchants “in the coming months”.

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