Visa Moving Ahead With Crypto Payment Technology

The company has engaged central banks across the world on digital currency questions. Sheffield said Visa wanted to share what it learned with central banks developing CBDCs and financial institutions building stablecoins. The company also examined the feasibility of offline digital payments.

Central banks would encounter obstacles that plague stablecoin developers, Sheffield noted. A Bank of Japan research paper identified system resilience and accessibility as the primary barriers facing CBDC launches.

Visa is expanding its principal member ranks to include more crypto firms. Coinbase is the sole known principal member, a designation that lets its users spend crypto at any of Visa's 60-plus million merchant partners. Terry Angelos, Visa's senior vice president for fintech, said crypto companies wanted to tap into that network and were doing so.

"We are seeing significant interest in demand from crypto companies that want to work with Visa and connect their clients to our network of 60-plus million merchants," Angelos said. Sheffield added that Visa had brought in 25 more crypto companies from around the world. "We have close relationships with a number of the leading crypto wallets and exchanges, and we help them access our network of over 60 million merchants," he said.