Visa announces digital currencies coming to its settlement platform

By Pavithra R

Visa has announced forging new connections between digital and traditional currencies with the use of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin backed by the US dollar, to settle a transaction with Visa over Ethereum.

Visa is piloting the capability with Crypto.com and plans to offer the USDC settlement capability to additional partners later this year.

Support for digital currencies as a new type of settlement currency marks an important milestone for Visa’s network of networks strategy, designed to enhance all forms of money movement, whether on the Visa network or beyond. By leveraging its global presence, partnership approach, and trusted brand, the firm is focused on adding differentiated value to the ecosystem and making cryptocurrencies more secure, useful, and applicable for payments.

“Crypto-native fintechs want partners who understand their business and the complexities of digital currency form factors. The announcement today marks a major milestone in our ability to address the needs of fintechs managing their business in a stablecoin or cryptocurrency, and it’s really an extension of what we do every day, securely facilitating payments in all different currencies all across the world,” said Jack Forestell, executive vice president and chief product officer, Visa.

Last year, Visa has spent significant efforts in establishing a pathway for digital currency settlement within its existing treasury infrastructure, a platform that moves billions of dollars each day across thousands of institutions in more than 200 markets and 160 currencies. Together with Anchorage, the first federally chartered digital asset bank and an exclusive Visa digital currency settlement partner, the firm has introduced a pilot that allows Crypto.com to send USDC to Visa to settle a portion of its obligations for the Crypto.com Visa card program.

“We’ve seen record-breaking growth in our business and the broader crypto ecosystem over the last year. To continue accelerating the world’s transition to cryptocurrency, we need partners who understand the opportunity and the tools that will help us get to market faster and more efficiently. Having been a Visa partner for several years, we’re excited to deepen that relationship through our global agreement and to pioneer an exciting world-first in stablecoin payments,” said Kris Marszalek, Co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com.

Visa’s standard settlement process requires partners to settle in a traditional fiat currency. This adds cost and complexity for businesses built with digital currencies. The ability to settle in USDC can help Crypto.com and other crypto native companies evaluate new business models without the need for traditional fiat in their treasury and settlement workflows. Visa’s treasury upgrades and integration with Anchorage also bolsters Visa’s ability to directly support new central bank digital currency (CBDC) as they emerge.

“Anchorage’s platform has been purposefully built for institutions like Visa to build new products in crypto. We’ve been with Visa every step of the way since 2019 and are extremely pleased to see these first stablecoin payment rails come to life through Anchorage APIs,” said Diogo Mónica, Co-Founder and President of Anchorage.