Visa informed that would launch a crypto advisory services for its clients, in another sign that digital assets are becoming more mainstream.
The world’s largest payment company said it wanted to “help [its] partners navigate a new era of money movement.” One of its surveys has shown that nearly 40% of crypto owners would be likely to switch their primary bank to one that offers crypto-related products. And 94% of 6000 people surveyed globally have some awareness of crypto. While almost 1/3 have invested or used it as a form of exchange.
Visa named American bank UMB as a client that’s already using its crypto advisory services. The move marks Visa’s latest attempt to push deeper into the crypto industry. From Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021, the company processed $3.5 billion in digital currency transactions through its crypto-linked card schemes, according to Nikola Plecas, Visa’s European crypto lead.
“Some of these leading exchanges have millions or, in some instances, tens of millions of users,” Plecas informed, adding that the company allows users to spend their crypto at over 80 million merchants. “Crypto for us is a huge new vertical and growth opportunity. And we will be continuing to focus on growing this business moving forward.”
“We came to Visa to learn more about crypto and stablecoins and the uses cases that are most relevant for our retail and commercial business lines as we serve our customers in the years ahead,” Uma Wilson, executive vice president, chief information and product officer at UMB Bank said in a statement. “Visa Global Crypto Advisory Practice helped us build a comprehensive and executable strategy — from product and partner selection to cross-functional considerations such as technology, finance, risk and compliance.”
Cryptocurrencies have become mainstream and now all of the digital coins together have a market capitalization of $2.4 trillion, up from $563 billion a year ago, according to CoinGecko. And it’s not just individuals and companies getting involved. More than half of the world’s central banks are at some stage of exploring or rolling out their own official digital currencies.
Visa’s head of cryptocurrency, Cuy Sheffield, told that the payments company thinks there’s “deep consumer demand” for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Every financial institution should have a dedicated strategy to the space, he said. Sheffield explained that was the primary reason they set up the advisory services team.
