Visa to Settle Payments in USDC on Ethereum
- Crypto.com will be the first company allowed to manage its Visa card business entirely in the USDC stablecoin.
- The new USDC settlements platform will be made available to other Visa crypto partners “later this year”.
Pile of Visa cards. Shutterstock
Payments giant Visa has allowed crypto platform Crypto.com to trial a new service that settles transactions made in fiat using the USDC stablecoin, Visa stated in a press release on 29 March.
According to the announcement, Visa has become the first major payments network to use stablecoins as a settlement currency, allowing payment settlements to be made in the USD Coin (USDC) on the Ethereum blockchain. While the payments giant only used fiat currencies to settle payments so far, it will now allow Crypto.com to manage its Visa card business entirely in the digital asset. Visa’s Chief Product Officer, Jack Forestell, said in a statement:
“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.”
With this, Crypto.com no longer needs to convert USDC to fiat before settling its payments with Visa, which will reduce the “cost and complexity for businesses built with digital currencies”. Crypto.com will now be able to send USDC to Visa’s Ethereum address at crypto bank Anchorage, which will be the new settlement agent for Visa’s USDC capability.
The new USDC settlements platform will be made available to other Visa crypto partners — such as fintech companies and neobanks dealing with crypto — “later this year”. This new system will help crypto companies create new business models “without the need for traditional fiat in their treasury and settlement workflows” Visa explained.
In December, reports indicated that Circle Internet Financial — the developer of the USDC stablecoin — was going through Visa’s Fast Track program, with plans to work with the payments giant in selecting issuers for a new USDC-enabled credit card.
- The digital ID project said Orb Operators received USDC payments as part of the project’s transitional phase after launch, and now that it is nearing its end Worldcoin will be switching to WLD payments.
- Worldcoin warned Orb Operators to check if they can claim rewards in their region as WLD are not available in the United States and “certain other restricted territories”.
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- Crypto.com has once again expanded its regulatory achievements with the acquisition of a major payment institution license for digital payment token services in Singapore.
- The license, for which the company received an in-principle approval last June, enables the exchange to provide a greater range of payment services in Singapore.
- SVB Financial Group has filed for a Chapter 11 court-supervised reorganization in the U.S. in order to “preserve value”.
- The company stressed it is no longer affiliated with Silicon Valley Bank, the closure of which sent ripples across the crypto industry.