Thirteen years after Bitcoin was created as the first ever cryptocurrency, the digital assets sector has boomed into a full-fledged industry these past years. Payments giant Visa has now teamed up with FTX crypto exchange to bring crypto services to its users in over 40 nations. Visa, that has been in the financial business since 1958, believes that virtual currencies are here to stay and will eventually have a lasting impact on the future of financial services around the world.
FTX crypto exchange, as part of the deal, will offer company branded Visa debit cards for all of its customers, globally.
The cards will enable users to use their crypto balances saved on FTX wallets to purchase goods and services in locations that accept the Visa cards.
In addition, the holders of these FTX Visa debit cards will not be subject to any administrative or processing fees for using the card.
“Even though values have come down there’s still steady interest in crypto. We don’t have a position as a company on what the value of cryptocurrency should be, or whether it’s a good thing in the long run — as long as people have things they want to buy, we want to facilitate it,” Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu told the media in recent interactions.
Initial roll-out phases for these cards will be focussed on Europe and Asia. More regional launches for these cards will continue to the next year.
In their respective ways, both FTX and Visa have actively been participating in linking the virtual assets sector to the existing global financial institutions.
Earlier this year, Visa launched a creator programme to help digital-age artists understand and use NFTs.
In its earnings call back in January this year, Visa had also noted that its customers made $2.5 billion (roughly Rs. 18,685 crore) in payments using its crypto-linked cards during the first fiscal quarter of 2022 that ended on December 31. That volume, when put into perspective, accounted for over 70 percent of all crypto-card volume throughout the fiscal year of 2021 that ended on September 30 2021, signalling increased adoption of digital asset payments during those months.
FTX, on the other hand, has been investing capital and forging partnerships to strengthen the crypto sector with the existing fintech setup.
As per a recent KPMG report, FTX crypto exchange is the second-biggest investor in crypto projects, that has already pledged over $500 million (roughly Rs. 4,000 crore) into promising initiatives so far this year.
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