Financial service companies Visa and Mastercard have halted plans to forge a new partnership with crypto firms over market uncertainties.
Reports disclose that both companies are pushing back plans on the launch of certain crypto-related products following the string of high-profile collapses that shook the industry. Visa and Mastercard will however put the launch of their services on temporal hold until market conditions and the regulatory environment improves.
A visa spokesperson said, “Recent high-profile failures in the crypto sector are an important reminder that we have a long way to go before crypto becomes a part of mainstream payments and financial services. However, Visa will not change its positive stance and strategy on crypto”.
Also commenting on the issue, a MasterCard spokesperson said, “Our efforts continue to focus on the underlying blockchain technology and how that can be applied to help address current pain points and build more efficient systems.”
The spokesperson however disclosed that the decision does not in any way affect the company’s strategy and focus on digital assets, adding that the company would continue to explore more use cases of blockchain while awaiting a clear regulatory framework to forge new partnerships with crypto firms.
Investors King understands that both Visa and Mastercard have contributed immensely to the seamless payments of digital assets among customers. Since 2021, they have announced several partnerships with crypto firms to help users purchase crypto seamlessly. Specifically, Visa has partnered with over 70 crypto firms, serving 80 million merchants globally. It is however interesting to note that Visa in October last year teamed up with the now bankrupt crypto exchange FTX to offer debit cards in 40 countries with a focus on Latin America, Asia, and Europe.
Just recently, Mastercard announced a partnership with Web3 payment protocol Immersve to allow users to make crypto payments on digital, physical, and the metaverse worlds. The company planned to use decentralized protocols to settle real-time cryptocurrency transactions on outlets accepting Mastercard payments.
Similarly, Visa announced last month that it is seeking to build “muscle memory” around settlements, with plans to allow customers to convert digital assets to fiat currencies on its platform. However, the recent market collapse pushed many crypto firms, which saw FTX and Blockfi file for bankruptcy, forcing payment giants to rethink their crypto partnerships.
