Visa joins 60 crypto platforms to bring cryptocurrencies to 80 million merchants

Visa’s crypto team leader, Cuy Sheffield, revealed that the payments giant has partnered with some 60 crypto platforms to bring payments with digital assets to 80 million merchants worldwide.

More precisely, Visa’s goal is “to launch card programs that make it easier for consumers to convert and spend digital currencies

“We built a big boost in this space. And we will continue to support the cryptoactive ecosystem in many ways,” he said in an interview with NDTV.

Visa wants to bring cryptocurrencies to 80 million merchants

As Sheffield pointed out, the scale and scope of work focused on digital currencies has grown dramatically at Visa.

Proof of this is that the number of cross-functional people working with crypto in the company is now in the hundreds:

“We’ve more than doubled our number of partnerships with cryptocurrency platforms in the last 18 months. There are 60 partnerships today”, highlighted Sheffield.

According to the executive, the current list of partners includes exchanges such as FTX, BlockFi, Crypto.com, Coinbase and Binance.

Thus, these partners will help Visa launch crypto-supported cards, which enable payments with digital assets:

“Crypto cards make it easier for consumers to convert and spend digital currencies, without requiring coffee shops, dry cleaners or supermarkets to directly accept the cryptocurrency at the checkout,” he continued. “All conversions of cryptoactives into fiat currencies happen instantly, behind the scenes. In-store, online, it’s as easy as a standard Visa transaction.”

Visa will continue to support cryptocurrencies

Visa also recently launched a cryptocurrency advisory service called Visa’s Global Crypto Advisory Practice. The initiative is designed to help Visa customers and partners advance their own crypto journey.

In this regard, the executive stated that the company will provide its advisory services to clients all over the world. In other words, the objective is to take the service wherever there is interest.

In addition, he highlighted that, currently, Visa offers these services in markets with friendly regulations:

“At the end of the day, we want to serve as a bridge connecting the crypto ecosystem to our global network of 80 million merchants and over 15,000 financial institutions,” he concluded.