Global payment giant Visa on Monday, 29 March said that it will permit the use of cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network amid speculations over the ban of cryptocurrency in India.
The USD Coin is a stable coin whose value is pegged to that of a US dollar. Visa Inc has launched this pilot program in association with online crypto platform Crypto.com.
This move comes after major finance firms including BNY Mellon, BlackRock Inc and Mastercard Inc enabled settlement of some digital coins on their platforms, sparking predictions that cryptocurrencies might become a regular part of ‘investment portfolios’.
“We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we're seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers,” said Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa.
If a customer chooses to use Crypto.com visa card for buying any items, the digital currency held in the crypto wallet must be converted into conventional cash.
However, with Visa’s latest step, the cryptocurrency wallet will deposit fiat currency in a bank account, which will be wired to Visa at the end of the day to settle any transactions, including cost and complexity for companies.
Earlier last week, electric vehicle and clean energy firm Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday, 24 March, that people in the US can now buy a car from the company using Bitcoins. The option to pay with the popular cryptocurrency will be available to other countries later this year.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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