Crypto: strategic partnership Visa-Wirex – The Cryptonomist

Visa and Wirex sign a new strategic, long-term partnership, bringing together the best of payments and crypto. Crypto is here to stay, and this is demonstrated by innovative and reliable partnerships between respected companies like these.

In 2014, Wirex launched the first crypto debit card with Visa, and became a core member of Visa in Europe in 2020. Now the partnership is on a higher level by accepting Wirex’s membership with Visa in UK and APAC region.

With over 5 million customers, Wirex has already achieved a major milestone. However, with this new partnership, it aims to grow in these regions, including direct card issuance and support in the development of unique, future-oriented products, so that more people can access the benefits of cryptocurrency in their everyday life.

Wirex becomes global partner of Visa: key move for the crypto world

As expected, Wirex, a leading crypto payment platform, has signed a long-term strategic global partnership with Visa’s network of payment companies.

The partnership aims to make it a member of Visa in APAC and the UK.

A factor that will enable Wirex to directly issue encrypted debit and prepaid cards in over forty countries. The agreement between Wirex and Visa will support further cooperation in large markets, i.a APAC, UK, Europe and US.

Joining Visa allows Wirex to offer innovative new products to use cryptocurrencies in everyday lifeimprove user experience and pilot new blockchain initiatives.

Wirex’s largest customer base is in the UK, with rapid growth in APAC, having been a finalist for the SFF Global Fintech Awards at the Singapore Fintech Festival last November. It is hoped that this partnership will continue to help them enable everyone to access the benefits of cryptocurrencies.

In any case, the announcement builds on the existing relationship between the two companies. As reported above, in 2015, Wirex was the first company in the world to develop one cryptocurrency-enabled cardwhich enables users to buy, hold, trade, sell multiple traditional and cryptocurrencies and spend on more than 80 million locations where Visa is accepted.

Customers benefit from real-time point-of-sale conversions, exclusive interbank and OTC exchange rates, free international ATM withdrawals, zero monthly fees, free fiat-fiat exchanges and Cryptoback rewards of up to 8% per purchase.

Statements on the Visa-Wirex partnership: crypto in everyday life

Svyatoslav GaralRegional Managing Director of Wirex APAC, about the new partnership said:

“It is great to strengthen our partnership with Visa, which has played an important role in allowing us to bridge the gap between the traditional and digital economy. Visa’s proven commitment to safety, security and innovation will help us continue to develop a next-generation app and card.”

On the other hand, Matt Wood, Head of Digital Partnerships, Asia Pacific, Visa commented:

“Visa wants to bring more payment options to consumers by connecting digital currencies to our network of banks and merchants. We’re excited that Wirex is expanding its focus on the Asia-Pacific region, making it easy and seamless for people to use their crypto balance at the millions of merchants who accept Visa in the region.”

In any case, the plans for the future look bright. In fact, Wirex will continue to work closely with Visa to expand services and launch their card program worldwide. In the coming weeks, Wirex will announce a significant new card issuing partnership in Australia.

Visa’s plans regarding stablecoins and digital assets

Payments giant Visa plans to introduce a new feature that allows customers convert digital assets into fiat money. This was revealed by the head of the company’s crypto division during the StarkWare Sessions 2023 conference.

Certainly, Visa has already carried out tests regarding USDC transfers on Ethereum network. To be clear, we are talking about large settlements.

In fact, the executive revealed that global payments with digital assets and fiat currencies is one of the areas where Visa is investing. In other words, the goal is, in much the same way that cross-border transactions are converted from dollars to euros, it will be possible to be able to convert between digital tokenized dollars and traditional dollars.

Visa is exploring ways to integrate blockchain technology into its payments network so it can move money faster and more efficiently.

However, international settlements still take place at FAST (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) system, a network created and operated by banks to facilitate exchanges.