Visa just doubled down on cryptocurrency with USDC and Bitcoin rewards card
The credit card company Visa just announced that they'll be working with Circle Internet Financial for USDC. Earlier this week, Visa announced a partnership with BlockFi to offer a Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card that offers 1.5% of purchases rewarded as Bitcoin. It's almost as if Visa has accepted the idea that cryptocurrency is the way of the future, and the company wants to get in on the business before they find their business struggling to catch up.
On December 1, 2020, Visa and BlockFi announced a Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card. The Visa Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card will offer 1.5% of purchases as reward for purchases as well as a lump sum of $250 worth of Bitcoin for users that spend more than $3k in the first three months after activating said card. The card will be issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, and will carry a $200 annual fee.
Take a peek at the BlockFi website to learn more about that particular cryptocurrency card and system. There's a waitlist at the moment.
The other bit of news this week from Visa is their partnership with Circle Internet Financial to integrate USDC into the Visa network. That's USDC, U.S. Dollar Coin, not to be mistaken for our standard USD. The cryptocurrency USDC is based on the Ethereum blockchain and is currently valued at approximately $2.9 billion USD.
Circle is working with Visa to "help select Visa credit card issuers start integrating the USDC software into their platforms," according to Forbes this afternoon.
Back in October of 2020, Visa joined forces with Coinbase to offer the Coinbase Visa card. That card allows users to "spend digital assets anywhere Visa is accepted." If you look all the way back to November of 2015, you'll see Visa working with Shift Payments to enable a Bitcoin debit card.
"We continue to think of Visa as a network of networks. Blockchain networks and stablecoins, like USDC, are just additional networks." said Cuy Sheffield, Visa head of Crypto. "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."