Cuy Sheffield News

Zurich, July 5: Tangem AG, the leading global provider of secure hardware wallet solutions, is thrilled to announce a partnership with Visa, a world leader in digital payments, to enable an innovative self-custodial payment solution for hardware wallets.

Visa, the global payments giant, has unveiled its expansion into the world of stablecoin payments, featuring integration with the Solana blockchain, and has initiated collaborations with prominent merchant banks, Worldpay and Nuvei.

Through live pilots with issuers and acquirers, Visa has already moved millions of the USDC stablecoin between its partners over the Solana and Ethereum blockchain networks to settle fiat-denominated payments authorised over VisaNet. “By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury,” says Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto, Visa. The payments giant has been working with issuers on stablecoins since 2021 and is now looking into settlement options to send funds onchain to acquirers like Worldpay and Nuvei to help speed up settlement times for their merchants. Using its own account with USDC outfit Circle, Visa can now manage settlement payouts in USDC to Worldpay and Nuvei who can then route these payments in USDC to their end merchants. Meanwhile, Visa has added support for Solana as a high performance blockchain that its partners can choose to send or receive USDC settlement payments. “Visa’s USDC settlement capability enables Worldpay to bring more of our treasury operations in-house and allows us to offer merchants more choices for receiving funds,” says Jim Johnson, president, Worldpay Merchant Solutions, FIS.

Global payments giant Visa has used Ethereum's Goerli testnet to try out transaction-free payments with the help of account abstraction. 

Global payment giant Visa continues to explore the benefits of the cryptocurrency industry with a new initiative focused on stablecoin payments.

According to the global payment provider Visa, 2022 became a record-breaking year for cryptocurrency thefts, with over $3 billion stolen in on-chain thefts. Cryptocurrency bridge services were a favored target for threat actors. 

Crypto cycles aren’t for the faint-hearted. As the industry continues to evolve from the cypherpunks into the mainstream, we can expect a lot of growing pains. The dumpster fire that was 2022 may have scared off many companies interested in exploring the sector. Case in point: Visa and Mastercard’s embrace of crypto may have hit a snag thanks to the bear market and unclear regulations.

Visa has reiterated its commitment to crypto strategy, refuting recent reports that the payment giant plans to pause crypto push due to uncertain market conditions. 

The cards allow users to convert and pay for goods and services with the crypto balance in their FTX wallets at the 80 million merchant locations worldwide that accept Visa.Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO, FTX, says: "This card allows users to make use of their FTX crypto balances 24 hours a day, 365 days a year securely and with no administrative or processing fees." Cuy Sheffield, head, crypto, Visa, adds: "At Visa, we believe that digital currencies will have a lasting impact on the future of financial services and money movement."

The cards allow users to convert and pay for goods and services with the crypto balance in their FTX wallets at the 80 million merchant locations worldwide that accept Visa.Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO, FTX, says: "This card allows users to make use of their FTX crypto balances 24 hours a day, 365 days a year securely and with no administrative or processing fees." Cuy Sheffield, head, crypto, Visa, adds: "At Visa, we believe that digital currencies will have a lasting impact on the future of financial services and money movement."

The new one year Visa Creator programme promises to help some of these artists who want to incorporate NFTs into their business model.Those picked to join the cohort will get technical and product mentorship from Visa's crypto experts; access to their fellow members as well as industry thought leaders and Visa clients and partners; and a stipend.Visa, which last year splashed out $150,000 on its own CryptoPunk NFT, has been investigating how it can tap into an area that has seen explosive growth.Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto, Visa, says: "NFTs have the potential to become a powerful accelerator for the creator economy. We’ve been studying the NFT ecosystem and its potential impacts on the future of commerce, retail and social media.

The case for cryptocurrency is becoming more compelling for financial institutions.

Visa’s head of crypto Cuy Sheffield said that investing in cryptocurrency has become a lot cooler thanks to an influx of creative types drawn in by the booming NFT sector.