By Shelly Melancon (Switzerland)
Credit card giant, Visa have announced their first settlement payment in U.S. Dollar coin (USDC). This coin has a 1:1 ratio with the U.S. Dollar. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Visa is partnering with crypto.com to create the USDC. Through this initiative, crypto.com can now start settling some payments under the Crypto.com Visa card program with USDC.
A statement from Reuters states that: “starting from this morning Visa Inc. Will start allowing settlement of transactions through USD coin (our native cryptocurrency) on our payment network. This latest development shows another milestone in the acceptance of virtual currencies by traditional finance institutions.” After a successful pilot program launch, there are plans to open up this payment option for partners before the year ends.
USDC Is Built On the Ethereum Blockchain
It is remarkable to note that Visa’s USD coin was built on the Ethereum blockchain.
Bloqport tweet about Visa’s USDC. Source: Twitter
It was also disclosed that the first transaction has already been completed through a partnership arrangement between Visa and anchorage (a digital asset bank). Cryto.com sent the USD coin to Visa’s Ethereum wallet with anchorage. Visa is already in partnership talks with top virtual asset platforms such as Bitpanda, BlockFi, and Coinbase all of whom have a combined user-base of over 50 million active account holders.
Also read:Will This Move Lead to The Mass Adoption of Digital Currencies?
This welcome development from Visa comes at a time when the crypto community continues to make serious efforts for mass adoption of cryptocurrency. One of the moves that could lead to mass adoption was the announcement by Elon Musk that tesla can now be bought with bitcoin. This step is a significant forward step in the use of digital assets in the commerce industry.
Cuy Sheffield, who heads crypto at Visa remarked: “There is a lot of demand from our users all over the globe to access, hold and use virtual currencies. Also, our clients are demanding that we build products that these demands. It was only natural that we build a product that meets these needs and even allows them to pay their vendors and employers with our coin.”
With all this positive news, Peter Brandt predicts that bitcoin will experience a significant uptrend before the year ends. The veteran crypto trader said that he won’t be surprised if the king coin surges by over 250% from its current price.
A Top Significance of USDC for Visa Inc.
One other reason why this pilot is significant for Visa is that it can tap into opportunities that would soon be available by the central bank issued central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
Central bank digital currencies will be issued and managed directly by central banks making it a digital variant of fiat currency. Sheffield further added, “We strongly believe that there should be a collaboration between CBDCs and all payments network and allowing digital wallets to offer Visa credentials is the most effective way to accomplish that goal. It also allows central banks to tap into Visa’s over 69 million merchant networks to settle various transactions.”
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