Visa moves to Approve Cryptocurrency to Settle Transactions
On Monday, the cryptocurrency market received a fresh dose of buying momentum following the news that Visa, a payments giant, has approved a stablecoin for use directly on its payment network. The coin, called USD Coin (USDC), has its value directly pegged to the US dollar. The token will now be allowed for use to settle transactions on Visa’s payment network. To do that, Visa will use the Ethereum blockchain, one of the most popular open-source blockchains.
The move made Visa the first major payments network to settle transactions in USD Coin as the payments company is looking to bridge digital and fiat currencies. Initially, Visa will be working with its partner, Crypto.com, but is planning to offer the option to more partners later this year.
“We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers,” Cuy Sheffield, head of Crypto at Visa, said.
Visa’s leap into the digital world would allow its clients to pay with cryptocurrencies without the need to convert them into fiat currency in order for a transaction to be processed. Other large financial players in the industry are also working on enabling their clients to pay with digital assets. Mastercard and PayPal will soon allow select cryptocurrencies to be traded on their networks.
Bitcoin Trading in Positive Territory for a Second Straight Day
Yesterday’s announcement by Visa was the latest sign of growing acceptance of cryptocurrencies by traditional finance. It prompted crypto market participants to initiate a renewed buying wave that helped push bitcoin higher by 4.50% on the day. On Monday, bitcoin reached a session high of $58,350 but later price eased off its peak and closed at $57,200. The positive sentiment appears to have been carried over to today’s trading as bitcoin is now above its Monday closing price. Currently, the world’s largest coin is trading near $58,000, or a daily gain of 1.50%, marking a second consecutive day of the price increase.
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