Payment firm Visa aims to create a system for converting digital assets to fiat money, Cuy Sheffield, Visa head of crypto, said at a recent event.
At the StarkWare Sessions 2023, he said: “We’ve been testing how to actually accept settlement payments from issuers in USDC starting on Ethereum and paying out in USDC on Ethereum. So, these are large value settlement payments.”
In his fireside chat, he explained why Visa aimed to experiment with conversions between digital and fiat currencies.
He told audiences: “That’s been one of the areas where we want to build muscle memory. The same way that we can convert between dollars in euros on a cross-border transaction, we should be able to convert between digital tokenized dollars and traditional dollars.”
Explaining further, he added that the payment process would operate according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT).
He added: “We set all over Swift, so we can’t move money as frequently as we’d like because there are a number of limitations that exist in those networks. And so, we’ve been experimenting, we publicly announced. We’ve been testing how to actually accept settlement payments [with stablecoins].”
The news comes after the payment enterprise published its white paper on its collaboration on blockchain technologies. According to it, the company aims to facilitate digital currency transactions by focusing on four services.
Visa will launch consumer payments tools, add crypto value-added services, facilitate new digital currency flows, and contribute to CBDC research and stakeholder engagement, it added.
In his talk, Sheffield restated his company’s aims for cryptocurrency,
“We’re thinking a lot about how to take some of the value that visa provides on existing bank rails, with existing forms of beyond in a rebuild that on top of blockchain rails, using stable boards. If we think there are huge opportunities in that area, it just kind of stays on emerging.”
The news also comes amid massive interest in stablecoin technologies. The United Kingdom recently launched plans to develop a digital pound to diversify payment options for citizens and investors.
Other nations have pushed to adopt cryptocurrencies, including Fiji, Tonga, Montenegro, the European Union, El Salvador, and many others. Japan also discussed this month how it could ease tax regulations to allow crypto investors to revitalise its national economy.