In a new interview with Brazilian media source Seu Dinheiro, Eduardo Abreu, VP of new business at Visa, acknowledged that the payments giant plans on incorporating cryptocurrency as a payment option on its platform. Although no timeline was given, Abreu explained that Visa is exploring the possibility of allowing cryptocurrency to be used for purchases, as well as allowing users to use the platform to store cryptocurrency assets, including Bitcoin (BTC).
This past March, Visa’s CEO of Brazil, Fernando Teles, presented the idea of taking on tokenized payments and application programming interfaces (API) intended to overcome any issues between conventional financial establishments and cryptocurrency services. In the Seu Dinheiro interview, Abreu shared his conviction that more noteworthy reception of cryptocurrency will require the incorporation of conventional financial movement inside the digital currency space so clients can execute with fiat and cryptocurrency inside a similar climate.
Visa offers 180 different currencies on its platform. It hopes to use its 170 million worldwide client base and established FinTech associations with public banks Alterbank, Ripio and Zro to expand cryptocurrency adoption in the region. While there was no particular announcement concerning the date of the introduction, it is broadly expected to occur soon, possibly by the end of the year.
Abreu explained that the benefit of embracing cryptocurrency is its simplicity. Without expecting to trade fiat money, there is an improvement of trades when utilizing Bitcoin. He added that it might even be possible for Visa users to earn cryptocurrency with their purchases, pointing out that Brazilians are used to getting card points, miles and other benefits, and adding cryptocurrency rewards would not be out of the question.
