Crypto Consultancy Services is New Venture for ‘VISA’
Visa is expanding its advisory services to help clients understand cryptocurrency.
The payments processor’s crypto advising service will advise financial institutions, retailers, and other businesses on anything from implementing crypto features to investigating non-fungible coins.
Visa has added UMB, an American bank, to its crypto advisory client list.
Visa’s latest attempt to penetrate the crypto business. According to Nikola Plecas, Visa’s European crypto lead, the company processed $3.5 billion in digital currency transactions from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021.
In addition to spending crypto at over 80 million businesses, Plecas told CNBC that some big exchanges have millions or tens of millions of users.
The company is also working on products for stablecoins, virtual tokens pegged to sovereign currencies, usually the dollar.
Visa expects its crypto-consulting services would help mainstream bitcoin and other cryptos. Cryptocurrencies, like Mastercard, are seen as a crucial growth possibility as the company extends beyond card payments.
In recent years, new financial upstarts have strengthened competition among major payment networks. Open banking, which intends to provide competitor fintechs access to customer bank information and payment capabilities, threatens their business model.
Large IT businesses are also pressuring Visa. To avoid “high fees,” Amazon recently announced it will discontinue taking Visa cards in the UK. The e-commerce behemoth has also sued Visa in Australia and Singapore.
“Crypto for us is a huge new vertical and growth opportunity. And we will be continuing to focus on growing this business moving forward,” Plecas said
According to a Visa poll released Wednesday, 94% of individuals are aware of crypto, and nearly a third have used it as an investment or medium of exchange. The study, performed in collaboration with marketing services firm LRW, polled over 6,000 people globally.