Visa Reports $1B in Transactions via Crypto Credit and Debit Cards so Far in 2021
Visa-backed crypto debit and credit cards have facilitated over $1 billion worth of transactions within the first half of the year. Crypto cards have become a major part of the push towards achieving scalable retail adoption of virtual currencies.
Billion Dollar Visa Crypto Card Transactions
According to an announcement released on Wednesday (July 7, 2021), Visa has revealed that crypto debit and credit cards issued by its partners processed over $1 billion in transactions between January and June. For Visa, this massive figure is a testament to the growing appeal for Visa-backed credit and debit cards among customers.
Indeed, Visa’s figures for crypto card spending in 2019 only amounted to a fraction of the over $1 billion presented by the company. Speaking to CNBC, Vasant Prabhu, Visa’s chief financial officer, remarked:
“We are doing a lot to create an ecosystem that makes cryptocurrency more usable and more like any other currency. People are exploring ways in which they can use cryptocurrencies for things they would use normal currencies for. There are lots of issues in terms of volatility, etc. But that’s up to the owners of cryptocurrencies to manage and track.”
Prabhu also noted that the company is seeing a massive volume of activity from crypto channels as users appear eager to utilize cryptocurrencies for online spending. As previously reported by BTCManager, the global payment giant has collaborated with several major names in the crypto space to extend the reach of its crypto card service.
Back in April, cryptocurrency payment behemoth Crypto.com became a principal member of Visa’s network in Australia. These partnerships enable virtual currency firms to issue Visa-backed crypto credit and debit cards to their users.
More Cryptocurrency Expansion in the Works
As part of Wednesday’s announcement, Visa also offered a roadmap for its planned extension of the company’s crypto footprint. According to the roadmap, Visa is keen to expand and evolve its cryptocurrency ecosystem that already includes major partners like Coinbase, CoinZoom, FTX, and Crypto.com among others.
Visa also revealed plans for loyalty rewards and rebates which are also popular within the retail adoption drive for cryptocurrencies. Given its partnership with Circle, issuers of USD Coin (USDC), Visa also has its eyes on the stablecoin market as a way of combining the open-source collaboration ethos of cryptos with the reliability of fiat currency-backed reserves.
