Visa to add Crypto Payments to its Platform, says CEO Alfred Kelly

Alfred Kelly, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visa expressed his thoughts about cryptocurrencies for Visa. He talked about what Visa thinks about crypto in general during the firms Q1 2021 earnings call.

He says, ‘In this space, we see ways that we can add differentiated value to the ecosystem. And we believe that we are uniquely positioned to help make cryptocurrencies more safe, useful and applicable for payments through our global presence, our partnership approach and our trusted brand.”

Al Kelly thinks the crypto market is in two segments. The first one is cryptocurrencies that represent new assets such as Bitcoin.

While the second one is digital currencies or stable coins that are directly backed by existing fiat currencies. He also said that the first segment currencies are digital gold.

Visa strategy is to work with wallets and exchanges in order to enable users to purchase these currencies using Visa credentials.

“Today, 35 of the leading digital currency platforms and wallets have already chosen to issue Visa, including coin-based Crypto.com, BlackFi, Fold and BitPanda. These wallet relationships represent the potential for more than 50 million Visa credentials.”

“The next leading network has a fraction of that. And it goes without saying, to the extent a specific digital currency becomes a recognized means of exchange, there’s no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies today.”