Visa has joined forces with blockchain services outfit Circle Internet Financial to make USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin transactions compatible with certain credit cards, Forbes reports.
USDC is a digital dollar created by Circle and issued on the public Ethereum blockchain that can be stored in unhosted wallets.
“After Circle itself graduates from Visa’s Fast Track program, likely sometime next year, Visa will issue a credit card that lets businesses send and receive USDC payments directly from any business using the card,” says the report.
Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, told Forbes: “This will be the first, corporate card that will allow businesses to be able to spend a balance of USDC.”
In the future, the collaboration will facilitate USDC transactions between cross-border Visa-friendly companies.
More than two dozen wallet providers have signed ups for the card provider’s Fast Track plan recently, laying the groundwork for Visa’s USDC initiative.
Sheffield told Forbes, “We continue to think of Visa as a network of networks. Blockchain networks and stablecoins like USDC are just additional networks. So we think that there’s a significant value that Visa can provide to our clients, enabling them to access them and enabling them to spend at our merchants.”
On hearing the news, billionaire Mike Novogratz of Galaxy Digital said the move was significant for mainstream adoption. He tweeted: “This Visa news is big news. For crypto. For $USDC. For $ETH. They have 30mm merchants. The age of crypto is arriving.”