The world’s largest card company has just doubled its bid to hit the crypto market. Visa today announced that it has launched a crypto advisory practice for its clients and partners as part of its Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) branch.
The news comes just months after Cuy Sheffield, Visa chief for crypto, declared the asset class had become “cool” last month at a fintech conference. The payments giant made waves when it bought a CryptoPunk NFT this August, but its move to found a dedicated crypto consultancy shows that its attempts to capture crypto market share in a crowded field go beyond marketing stunts.
Visa’s partnerships with crypto platforms have doubled in the past 18 months, Sheffield told TechCrunch in an interview. Consumers have also spent about $ 3.5 million using Visa’s crypto-linked card programs, Sheffield said. increased from $ 1 million in July.
It also announced the results of a new global survey of consumer attitudes towards cryptocurrencies, which found that 40% of the 6,000+ respondents would likely switch primary bank to a bank that offers crypto products.
Visa has had “an incredible number of incoming calls from hundreds of customers and partners and traditional financial institutions” looking to incorporate crypto into their offerings, Sheffield said. Visa’s advisory arm has around 700 employees, although the company did not disclose how many would be associated with the crypto practice.
“We see Visa well positioned as a globally neutral brand with extensive crypto expertise that can help abstract some of the complexities of these emerging technologies and help banks integrate them into their core products,” said Sheffield.
To that end, Visa has invested in blockchain compliance company TRM Analytics by getting involved in its $ 60 million Series B. announced yesterday. American Express and Citi also took part in the fundraising campaign. Visa is just one of many established card providers trying to break into crypto, threatening their fee-based business model by replacing it as the new underlying infrastructure for payments.
Mastercard for its part launched a crypto rewards program in October this yearwho Bakkt uses as a custodian for digital assets. Visa also doesn’t hold cryptocurrencies directly, but works with Anchorage Digital to provide that capability – a company it first invests in in 2019. Visa is building its crypto API platform on top of Anchorage so that other banks can access their custody services, Sheffield said.
Sheffield expects growth in Visa’s crypto-linked debit card programs as well as use cases such as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Although only seven countries have implemented CBDCs so far, 87 more are considering. according to the Atlantic Council.
Visa hopes to capitalize on this interest by helping banks develop CBDC-related products, Sheffield said.
“We spent a lot of time researching what infrastructure CBDCs would use for consumer experiences and how consumers would interact with them. We are taking advantage of this expertise and commitments we have with central banks and helping banks reflect on their role in preparing, as we think there will be a number of countries that will go down this path, “Sheffield said.
