A few days before the end of 2021, Visa (V) revealed it was set to launch a highly-anticipated service within the crypto banking sector. The company announced a consulting service to serve crypto merchants and traditional banking institutions.
Visa promises to cater to clients by leveraging its previous experience in the sector.
The crypto finance sector is going mainstream at an increasing rate. In 2021, global trends showed that everyone wants a piece of the crypto market: Wall Street banks and individual investors are keen on dabbling in the crypto sector. International research shows that at least 40% of investors in the crypto space have switched banks to ones offering crypto products and accepting digital currencies as payment.
The inclusion of every group in crypto has encouraged payment providers like Visa to get involved in crypto-related products. It disclosed that the agency would help banks make decisions while weighing its aspirations for cryptocurrencies around the world. This what makes bitcoin secure or all the cryptocurrencies secure.
Data Showing Global Attitudes Toward Cryptocurrency
Visa conducted a survey in July to understand how people around the world believe and feel about digital assets. Six thousand consumers were surveyed.
The data obtained showed that cryptocurrencies are known in most countries around the world. 3 out of 10 respondents said they use crypto regularly as an exchange medium. About 40% of the respondents said they had plans to switch their primary banks to a crypto-friendly institution before mid-2022.
Cuy Sheffield says that traditional financial institutions are interested in their crypto consulting services. He explained that the advisory board had been set up to meet the deep consumer demand in the crypto space as well as provide efficient strategies for interested financial institutions in the space.
Finally, the study revealed that customers’ interest in cryptocurrencies is almost 10% higher in budding markets. The main reason cited as the biggest motivation for getting involved in the crypto industry is that the industry is definitely going to be the financial path of the future, as many will amass wealth through it.
Visa’s Global Crypto Advisory
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, proposed offering a range of consulting services to financial institutions about the various subsectors in the crypto market, like digital tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The bidding advisory practice will only revolve around markets based on blockchain technology.
The buildup to this development started in 2019. Visa noticed that the majority of on-ramp businesses were used to purchase crypto while the off-ramp businesses were used to convert the digital assets to fiat currency.
Since then, the company’s crypto activity has increased significantly. From a handful of employees across crypto departments to hundreds of individuals working for Visa.
The company announced that it now has contracts with at least 60 crypto platforms, four times more than what the company had about 18 months ago.
Collaboration with Crypto Platforms
Amid the crypto sector’s boom, Visa observed that clients and merchants over the previous years have changed from uncertainty to awareness, and finally to the realization that digital assets are set to have a stronghold on businesses worldwide.
Visa’s partnerships with crypto platforms to issue out crypto-linked payment cards have helped several outlets like Crypto.com, Coinbase, BlockFi, and FTX issue crypto cards to users. These cards are more or less debit or credit cards that allow users to utilize crypto and fiat currencies as an exchange medium for crypto rewards.
Each month, Visa claims they have been getting an increasing number of inbound calls from partners who have now become crypto-inclined. Some of these existing partners are top traditional banks, neobanks, merchants, and fintech.
Speaking on the total expenditure generated by the company’s crypto card-linked sector, Sheffield explained that the total consumer spending volume had crossed the $3.5 billion mark. Yet, critics say this figure is quite massive for a business that is less than a year old but still close to the bottom line for an international payments network like Visa.
The CryptoPunk NFT sold for $150,000.
Sheffield also mentioned that NFTs would play a major role in the company’s vision for crypto-related projects in retail, entertainment, commerce, and social media. He concluded that a few merchants, content platforms, and brands had shown interest in participating in the proposed NFT ecosystem.
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