Some Visa credit cards will soon support cryptocurrency transactions

Bitcoin
(Image credit: Shutterstock / REDPIXEL.PL)

In an exciting development for cryptocurrency fans, financial giant Visa has announced that it will support the US Dollar Coin (USDC) developed by Circle Internet Financial. The USDC is the fastest-growing full-reserve stablecoin in the world and is built upon the ethereum blockchain.

Forbes reports the partnership will see Circle and Visa work together to help some Visa credit card issuers to integrate USDC software into their platforms, allowing them to send and receive payments in USDC.

Circle will also be going through Visa’s Fast Track program, the initiative that looks to help companies obtain credentials for issuing Visa credit cards. When Circle graduates from the program, which is likely to be next year sometime, Visa will launch a credit card that lets businesses send and receive USDC payments directly. Visa already has 25 cryptocurrency wallet providers as part of its Fast Track program, including the likes of Fold and Cred.

A stable partnership

It’s important to note that USDC is not a cryptocurrency in the truest sense of the word, it is a stable coin pegged to the US dollar. Many of the crypto-assets being used in the corporate world are tonkenized version of fiat currencies, like USDC, as opposed to floating cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

“We continue to think of Visa as a network of networks,” Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of cryptocurrencies, told Forbes. “Blockchain networks and stablecoins, like USDC, are just additional networks. So we think that there’s a significant value that Visa can provide to our clients, enabling them to access them and enabling them to spend at our merchants.”

More than 3 billion USDC remain in circulation and Circle has ambitious plans to make the currency more widely accepted. Clearly, Visa believes these proposals, as well as those involving other digital currencies, have a bright future in the world of finance.

Via Forbes

Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things. 

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