thecryptobasic.com
Payment giant Visa has announced the launch of a new advisory division to help clients navigate the cryptocurrencies world reported by CNBC.
Crypto advisory practice, which will become part of the Visa consulting and analytics department, will offer advice to financial institutions, retailers, and other firms on everything from rolling out crypto features to the study of non-fungible tokens (NFT).
According to the head of the company’s cryptocurrency business in Europe, Nikola Plekas, the decision was made to move deeper into the field of digital assets.
“Some of these leading exchanges have millions or, in some instances, tens of millions of users,” Plecas told CNBC, adding that the Visa enables users to use their crypto at over 80 million merchants. Since October 2020, Visa has processed $3.5 billion in cryptocurrency-related transactions.
The firm also plans to develop products targeting stable coins and central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
Visa expects its cryptocurrency consulting services to help the massive adoption of Bitcoin and other digital assets as the company seeks to expand beyond the card payments business.
Plecas said:
“Cryptocurrencies are a huge new topic for us and an opportunity for growth. And we will continue to focus on growing this business, moving forward.”
Visa also partnered with marketing firm LRW to conduct a study that found that 94% of people around the world have some level of crypto awareness and almost a third of them are using crypto as investments or means of payment.
Earlier Visa bought one of CryptoPunk NFT for about $150,000 in Ethereum and also launched an initiative to popularize NFTs.