Report Claims Visa and Mastercard Plan to Pause New Partnerships, Visa’s Head of Crypto Insists ‘Story Is Inaccurate’

In line with a current report from sources conversant in the matter, Mastercard and Visa, the bank card and fee providers giants, are halting new partnerships with cryptocurrency companies. This information comes after the collapse of a number of cryptocurrency ventures that supplied crypto debit playing cards and failed resulting from monetary difficulties final 12 months. After the report revealed, Visa’s head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, criticized the story as “inaccurate because it pertains to Visa.”

Visa and Mastercard Make clear Their Stance on Cryptocurrency Regardless of Alleged Partnership Halt

A report revealed by Reuters on Tuesday states that Visa and Mastercard, two funds companies, are suspending their involvement in cryptocurrency ventures, in response to unnamed sources. The sources cited “high-profile collapses” as the explanation for the businesses’ determination, and famous that discussions concerning the topic had taken place.

Manya Saini, a Reuters reporter, spoke with a spokesperson for each Visa and Mastercard, and every offered a remark to the journalist. “Current high-profile failures within the crypto sector are an essential reminder that we now have a protracted option to go earlier than crypto turns into part of mainstream funds and monetary providers,” defined a spokesperson for Visa to Saini.

In line with the Visa spokesperson, the failures don’t alter the fee processor’s cryptocurrency and blockchain technique. The consultant for Mastercard said: “Our efforts proceed to concentrate on the underlying blockchain expertise and the way that may be utilized to assist handle present ache factors and construct extra environment friendly techniques.”

The cryptocurrency business has skilled a sequence of notable collapses and bankruptcies, together with a number of companies reminiscent of FTX, Celsius, and Blockfi, that had issued debit playing cards. After the collapse of those crypto corporations, their debit playing cards turned unusable and had been terminated. Nonetheless, in mid-February 2023, Wirex announced a partnership with Visa, a transfer the Reuters report seems to contradict. Earlier than the collapse of FTX in late October 2022, Blockchain.com and Visa had partnered to launch a crypto debit card.

The Reuters report additionally included a press release from American Specific, which partnered with Abra in June 2022. An American Specific spokesperson said that though the corporate is taken with using cryptocurrency for reward level redemption, it’s not a near-term strategic precedence. This place is one which the corporate has held for a while. “Within the near-term, we don’t see crypto changing our core fee and lending providers,” stated the American Specific consultant in an e mail.

Visa’s Head of Crypto Says Reuters ‘Story Is Innaccurate’

Following the Reuters report, Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, tweeted that the “story is inaccurate because it pertains to Visa.” Sheffield said that Visa continues “to associate with crypto corporations to enhance fiat on and off ramps in addition to progress on our product roadmap to construct new merchandise that may facilitate stablecoin funds in a safe, compliant, and handy approach.” The Visa govt added:

Regardless of the challenges and uncertainty within the crypto ecosystem, our view has not modified that fiat-backed digital currencies operating on public blockchains have the potential to play an essential function within the funds ecosystem.

Sheffield additional added that anybody “constructing on the intersection of crypto and funds” for them to achieve out. “We’d like to work with you,” the Visa govt added.

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