Visa to allow crypto payments to over 80 million merchants worldwide

What

Visa has partnered with 60 crypto platforms to enable digital payments for merchants across the globe

Why

The payments giant has been exploring various avenues in crypto, with this being a major foot in the door

What next

Visa hopes to tap into its pool of 80 million merchants worldwide and make digital payments available to them all

The story

Payments giant Visa has partnered up with 60 crypto platforms to launch a card program that will enable users to convert and spend digital currency at 80 million locations worldwide.

Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto said the scale and scope of Visa’s work in crypto has grown dramatically.

“The number of people cross-functionally at Visa working on crypto in some capacity is now in the hundreds — up from just a handful of employees. And we’ve more than doubled our number of partnerships with crypto platforms in the last 18 months — up to 60 partnerships today.”

Sheffield said all the conversions from crypto to fiat happen instantly and behind the scenes.

“Crypto-linked cards make it easy for consumers to convert and spend digital currencies, without requiring coffee shops, dry cleaners, or grocery stores to directly accept crypto at the checkout.”

The announcement came shortly after Sheffield reinforced that Visa would continue to provide crypto services to its clients, saying that Bitcoin and altcoins are a “technological phenomenon.”

Sheffield added that cryptocurrency sits at the “intersection of commerce and culture, and it does so in a fascinating way.”

Just how deep will Visa go down the rabbit hole?