In the digital era, when traditional financial institutions are increasingly looking for innovations, the payment giant Visa has decided to expand its settlement capabilities related to the cryptocurrency USDC. Collaborating with Solana, Worldpay, and Nuvei, the company is opening a new chapter in the history of digital transactions.
In a world where blockchain technology is gaining more and more recognition, Visa has decided to harness the potential of the cryptocurrency USDC on the Solana platform. As of September 5th, the company has expanded its settlement capabilities using USDC, collaborating with merchant service providers – Worldpay and Nuvei.
This initiative means that some merchants associated with WorldPay and Nuvei can now accept payments directly in USDC instead of traditional currency when customers make purchases using Visa cards.
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, emphasized the importance of this step in a thread on platform X (formerly Twitter). As he says, Visa tested USDC as a treasury option since 2021 when the company partnered with Crypto.com to conduct a pilot in a real environment.
This program allowed Visa to accept settlements for the Crypto.com card program in Australia via the Ethereum network, using Visa’s Circle-managed account.
Now the company is implementing the same program on the Solana platform, using its dedicated Circle account for settlements with WorldPay and Nuvei. This allows service providers to settle payments directly in stable cryptocurrencies instead of traditional currency.
Although regulatory uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrencies still exists, stablecoins are gaining more attention from traditional players due to their resemblance to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). As an example, PayPal announced last month that it will introduce its own Ethereum-based stablecoin – PYUSD.
Meanwhile, Mastercard also announced a CBDC partnership program with several cryptographic companies, including Ripple and ConsenSys, to collaborate on CBDC development.
One should not overlook the collaboration of the traditional payment company, Swift, with Chainlink as part of a tokenization experiment.
Interest from traditional players is not just due to the novelty of blockchain technology. Most of them see its potential to become a significant competitor.
The London hedge fund Brevan Howard reported that transactions made using USD-based stablecoins reached a value of 11 trillion dollars in 2022. That’s ten times more than the transaction value handled by PayPal and only 0.6 billion less than transactions handled by Visa.
In light of this data, one thing is certain: cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are becoming an integral part of the modern financial system, shaping the future of global digital transactions.
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