Visa Customers Spent More Than US$1 Billion on Crypto-Linked Cards in 2021

Visa revealed that its customers had spent more than US$1 billion on its crypto-linked cards in the first half of 2021.

The payments giant reported that it had partnered with 50 leading crypto platforms on card programmes that make it easy to convert and spend digital currency at 70 million merchants worldwide.

Visa had previously announced in March 2020 that it will allow the use of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin backed by the US dollar, to settle transactions on its payment network over Ethereum.

The company has been expanding partnerships with digital currency platforms such as FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com, and CoinZoom, to name a few.

In fact, one-quarter of the companies in its Fintech Fast Track programme are working to issue Visa cards linked to a crypto platform.

All of this is in line with Visa’s digital currency roadmap which spells out its vision for supporting the future of money.

Vasant Prabhu, CFO of Visa told CNBC,

“We are doing a lot to create an ecosystem that makes crypto currency more usable and more like any other currency. People are exploring ways in which they can use cryptocurrencies for things they would use normal currencies for.

There are lots of issues in terms of volatility, etc. But that’s up to the owners of cryptocurrencies to manage and track.”