In October 2018, Visa Inc. CEO Aflred Kelly told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that cryptocurrencies are not a big threat but “if we have to go there, we will go there.”
At the time, Visa was a $300B+ company and the combined market cap of all cryptocurrencies was $200B+. Today, things are looking different:
Well, earlier this week… Visa went there. Per Reuters, the payments giant will roll out a pilot program with crypto platform Crypto.com.
Crypto.com already offers its users a Visa card. However, any payments used by the cryptocurrency card have to be converted to fiat, which adds costs and complexities for merchants.
Here’s the new process:
Ethereum has its own fee — called gas costs — to operate on the blockchain.
According to Protocol, a single transaction could rack up a fee of $10 to $20. Visa’s solution: to bundle payments as it does on its existing network to reduce costs and increase speed.
Such an improved process will go a long way to mainstreaming crypto for everyday payments.
As Bitcoin continues to rise, other big finance names are jumping aboard the crypto train. Among the moves:
JPMorgan Chase, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, and Mastercard are all making their own moves in tandem.
It’s safe to expect more finance players to “go there” in the very near future.