- Customers using crypto-linked Visa cards have reportedly spent $1 billion in payments
- It is a significant milestone ahead for cryptocurrency adoption
- Visa doesn’t hold any crypto-asset on its balance sheet but committed to smoothen adoption
- The stock price of the company hit a 52-week high
JAIPUR (Coinchapter.com) – On Wednesday, payment processing giant Visa reported that customers of its crypto-linked cards bought goods and services worth $1 billion. In the first half of the ongoing year.
Currently, cardholders can make payments in crypto at 70 million points of sale across the world. Thanks to Visa’s partnership with 50 platforms that make digital asset payments easier. Some of them include Coinbase, Circle, and Blockfi, among others.
Also Read: Visa Partnering With Anchorage To Allow Customers To Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency
Visa is betting highly on the future of seamless crypto transactions and fiat-to-crypto conversions. In a conversation with CNBC, Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu said, “We are doing a lot to create an ecosystem that makes cryptocurrency 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.”
Prabhu feels that this is just the beginning. And the trend will only grow bigger with passing time. “We see a lot of volume on our [network] of people buying cryptocurrencies at these various regulated exchanges, and as far as we can see, that trend continues,” he noted in the same CNBC chat.
In March, Visa had announced support for Ethereum-based stablecoin USD Coin for settling transactions.
Also Read: Bitcoin Is Now Worth More Than Visa & Mastercard Combined
No Plans To Hold Bitcoin
Many high-profile companies, including Tesla, MicroStrategy, Square, etc., started a trend by holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets. But Visa is not among them. And as it appears, the company has no plans to buy and hold digital assets even in the foreseeable future.
Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu rationalized the move by explaining that the only currency that the company holds is the US dollar since it is the greenback that pays for operations and employee salaries. “…we don’t have plans to hold cryptocurrency because it’s not typically the way we get paid or the way we pay people,” Prabhu said in the CNBC coverage.
Visa Stock Price Hits 52-Week High
With growth on the crypto payments front, Visa has also been making up serious moves up higher on stock price charts. As per Nasdaq, the stock price of the payments processor hit a 52-week high on Tuesday, July 6. The report states that the acquisition of European open banking company Tink is a plausible reason to explain the stock’s climb.
Also, due to high consumer spending, business was booming for Visa. Significant growth in payments volume and processed transactions have also made major contributions to the stock’s upward trajectory.
Nasdaq says that Visa stock investors are also pretty optimistic regarding the company making giant strides in the digital asset space. “This effort to make it big in the digital currency space makes investors upbeat about the stock as central banks around the world are adopting digital currencies. Being in the front row with banks will likely fuel Visa’s business growth.”, the report added.
