Payment giant Visa optimistic for crypto sector despite recent recession
Visa CEO Al Kelly said the company is still dedicated to using cryptocurrencies.
It also alluded to the possibility of a shake-up in the executive team.
At the Stark Ware Sessions 2023, Visa's head of crypto business, Cuy Sheffield, said the corporation aims to create a "muscle memory" for settlements, allowing customers to convert digital assets into fiat currency on its platform.
In a fireside chat during the conference, Sheffield said:
We tested how to actually accept settlement payments from issuers in USDC starting with Ethereum and USDC payments on Ethereum. So these are high-value settlement payments.
Focus on settlement payments with Stable coin
While efforts are being made to integrate blockchain technology into the payment giant's existing network. Most settlements still occur through the company for the global interbank financial telecommunications (SWIFT) system. A non-profit cooperative society created by European bankers to facilitate secure and standardized correspondence of transactions between its members. Sheffield validated management's optimism about blockchain and cryptocurrency technology.
Sheffield explained:
"We've put the Swift system all over the world, so we can't move money as frequently as we would like because there are a number of limitations in those networks. Thus, we were experimenting, publicly declaring. We've been testing how to actually accept settlement payments [using stable coins]."
Visa CEO Al Kelly made the statement at Tuesday's annual shareholder meeting. Saying the company is still dedicated to the use of cryptocurrencies, despite the recent volatility of the market. It also alluded to the possibility of a shake-up in the executive team.
Kelly said that despite the current recession in the cryptocurrency sector, the firm had not suffered any credit losses and that any investments made in companies or cryptocurrency funds were "insignificant." In response to a shareholder question presented by a Visa official at the meeting, Kelly indicated that stable coins, a kind of cryptocurrency often linked to a fiat currency, remain promising.
