Image Source: Pexels

Visa (V) announced plans to use its payment network to settle USD Coin (USDC) transactions. USDC tokens are stablecoins, pegged to the value of a US dollar.

Why should you care? Think about how easy it is to use a Visa card to buy something in a store. If successful, this new service -- a partnership between Visa, Crypto.com, and Anchorage, the first federally chartered digital asset bank -- will make it that easy to pay with crypto.

One good way to accomplish this is to streamline the process by allowing USDC transactions to settle in USDC tokens. That's the goal of the Crypto.com Visa program. It's an exciting step toward the blending of traditional banking, fintech, and the world of DeFi.

Read more about this below:
 

Visa moves to allow payment settlements using cryptocurrency

Published Mon, Mar 29 20215:52 AM EDT

Key Points

• Visa said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network.
• It was the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry.

Visa said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry.

Visa has launched the pilot program with payment and crypto platform Crypto.com and plans to offer the option to more partners later this year, it said.

The USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin cryptocurrency whose value is pegged directly to the U.S. dollar.

Visa’s move comes as major finance firms including BNY Mellon, BlackRock and Mastercard have embraced some digital coins, sparking predictions that cryptocurrencies will become a regular part of investment portfolios.

Tesla boss Elon Musk said last week that customers can buy its electric vehicles with bitcoin, marking a significant step forward for the cryptocurrency’s use in commerce.

“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.

Traditionally, if a customer chooses to use a Crypto.com Visa card to pay for a coffee, the digital currency held in a cryptocurrency wallet needs to be converted into traditional money.

Continue Reading on CNBC.