PayPal fomo'ed to bitcoin (cryptos) because Square Cash app was getting all the attention and "active user engagement". Visa now realizes it needs to fomo, too. Do you guys think, Apple Pay, Google Android Pay and Samsung Pay gonna sit this out on the sidelines? https://www.coindesk.com/visa-may-add-cryptocurrencies-to-its-payments-network-says-ceo The card giant works with wallets and exchanges to enable crypto purchases, and could eventually use digital currencies over blockchain in the same way it processes traditional money. Visa HQ (Shutterstock) Nathan DiCamillo Jan 30, 2021 at 7:43 a.m. PSTUpdated Jan 30, 2021 at 8:51 a.m. PST Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO Visa CEO Al Kelly said the payments giant is in a position to make cryptocurrencies more “safe, useful and applicable” and may add them to the company’s payments network. Speaking on the company’s fiscal first-quarter 2021 earnings call, Kelly described cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as “digital gold” which are “not used as a form of payment in a significant way at this point.” “Our strategy here is to work with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase these currencies using their Visa credentials or to cash out onto our Visa credential to make a fiat purchase at any of the 70 million merchants where Visa is accepted globally,” Kelly said. The payments executive also said stablecoins could be used for “global commerce” and that “digital currencies running on public blockchains as additional networks just like RTP or ACH networks.” Kelly added: “Today, 35 of the leading digital currency platforms and wallets have already chosen to issue Visa, including coin-based Crypto.com, BlockFi, Fold and BitPanda. These wallet relationships represent the potential for more than 50 million Visa credentials. The next leading network has a fraction of that. And it goes without saying, to the extent a specific digital currency becomes a recognized means of exchange, there's no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies today.”
There's a Forbes article on this, but this has more details https://www.coindesk.com/visa-anchorage-crypto-apis-pilot-for-banks Visa Signals Further Crypto Ambitions With API Pilot for Bank Customers to Buy Bitcoin Visa is working with Anchorage to allow customers at traditional banks to "buy and sell digital assets such as Bitcoin." Visa headquarters in Foster City, Calif. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Nathan DiCamillo Feb 3, 2021 at 4:00 a.m. PSTUpdated Feb 3, 2021 at 7:30 a.m. PST Visa is piloting a suite of application programming interfaces (APIs) that will allow banks to offer bitcoin services, the payments giant announced Wednesday. The Visa Crypto APIs pilot program will let clients “easily connect into the infrastructure provided by Visa’s partner, Anchorage, a federally chartered digital asset bank, to allow their customers to buy and sell digital assets such as bitcoin as an investment within their existing consumer experiences,” Visa said in a press statement. Visa envisions a product set that extends to other cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as well as other crypto services such as trading, Visa crypto lead Cuy Sheffield told CoinDesk in an interview. Digital bank First Boulevard is the first bank involved in the pilot; Visa has issued a wait list for other banks.