No less than Visa chief executive officer Al Kelly confirmed that that the payment giant “is leaning into the cryptocurrency space in a very, very big way.”
Kelly pointed out that there are five areas of crypto opportunities that they are focusing on and that they are extremely well-positioned.
According to news.bitcoin.com, Kelly highlighted their commitment to the crypto space, first noting that there are two market segments that they see in the space.
The first one is Bitcoin (BTC) which Kelly described as an asset held by people, explaining that they think of it as digital gold. The second one is digital currencies, including central bank digital currencies and stablecoins that are backed by currencies regulated by governments.
The first three areas
The first of the five areas mentioned by the VISA CEO is enabling consumers to purchase these currencies or Bitcoin, noting that they are exerting effort to ensure that they are facilitating the use of Visa cards to buy.
The second one is allowing digital currency cash-outs to fiat, which means converting digital currency to fiat on a Visa credential, making the funds available for shopping at any of the 70 million Visa merchants.
The third area is enabling financial institutions and fintech partners to offer crypto options for their customers.
The last two areas
Expounding on the third area of opportunity, Kelly said they have created APIs that give customers of financial institutions the ability to purchase, hold and even trade digital currencies held by the first federally charted digital asset bank in the U.S., Anchorage.
Meanwhile, the fourth area is settlement. With this regard, Kelly said, “We’ve upgraded our infrastructure to allow a financial institution to settle with these in a digital currency with stablecoin, starting with USDC.”
Kelly said the last area of opportunity and, perhaps one of the most challenging, in the crypto space that they are focusing on is working with central banks.
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