- VISA and Wirex will work on boosting daily crypto adoption, boosting the user experience as well as piloting new blockchain initiatives.
- This latest initiative comes after VISA announced the plans to bring stablecoin settlements on its platform.
On Monday, February 13, payments giant VISA announced that the company is planning to issue its crypto-enabled debit and credit across 40 countries in the United Kingdom and Asia-Pacific (APAC).
For this, VISA has entered into a long-term global strategic partnership with leading crypto payments platform Wirex. The agreement between VISA and Wirex will allow the offering of new and innovative crypto products. It will further help in boosting daily crypto adoption, boost the user experience as well as pilot new blockchain initiatives.
London-based Wirex serves 5 million customers in the United Kingdom alone. Additionally, it’s also witnessing rapid growth in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The recent partnership builds on the existing relationship between the two companies.
Back in 2015, Wirex became the first company to issue a crypto-enabled debit card allowing users to buy, hold, exchange, and sell multiple traditional and cryptocurrencies. Using the Wirex crypto debit card, users could also spend their digital assets at over 80 million locations where Visa is accepted.
With every purchase using the Wirex crypto debit card, customers can benefit from real-time point-of-sale conversion, free international ATM withdrawals, exclusive interbank and OTC exchange rates, 8% Cryptoback™ and several other kinds of rewards. Speaking on the development, Svyatoslav Garal, Regional Managing Director of Wirex APAC, said:
It’s great to strengthen our partnership with Visa, who have played an important role in allowing us to bridge the gap between the traditional and digital economies. Visa’s proven commitment to safety, security and innovation will help us to continue developing a next-generation app and card.
VISA and Crypto
The growing adoption of cryptocurrencies with every passing year is forcing traditional payment companies to lean towards crypto adoption. Despite the crypto winter last year in 2022, the Bitcoin blockchain processed more transactions than the top two giants VISA and Mastercard.
As VISA continues to explore the crypto space, it’s making sure that it operates within the ambit of the regulatory framework. In an interesting development recently, VISA said that it’s working on bringing stablecoin settlements to its platform.
Cuy Sheffield, who’s leading VISA’s crypto division stated that the payments giant is building a “muscle memory” for settlements. If enabled, this will also allow VISA’s 2.5 billion global customers to convert digital assets and fiat directly on its platform. As of date, VISA is testing the settlement of USDC stablecoins on the Ethereum network.
Thus, it seems that VISA is preparing for the next revolution that’s coming in the payments industry. Besides, we can expect stablecoins and CBDCs to exist in the future. It is most likely that VISA will support these blockchain-based assets. Commenting on the latest expansion with Wirex, Matt Wood, Head of Digital Partnerships, Asia Pacific, Visa, commented:
Visa wants to bring more payment options to consumers by connecting digital currencies with our network of banks and merchants. We’re excited that Wirex is expanding their focus on Asia Pacific, making it easy and seamless for people to spend their crypto balance at the millions of merchants that accept Visa in the region.
