Visa and WhiteBit signed a memorandum of cooperation
Date: 2023-08-13 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BUSINESS
Payments giant Visa has entered into its first partnership with a cryptocurrency company in six months, signing a memorandum of cooperation with the WhiteBIT exchange.
Recent tech announcements also indicate that cryptocurrencies are back in favor with Visa.
Visa's crypto initiatives have been frozen for 6 months
Back in February, Visa and Mastercard put on hold plans to partner with crypto companies due to a series of bankruptcies and a market crash.
“The recent high-profile setbacks in the cryptocurrency sector are an important reminder that we have a long way to go before cryptocurrencies become part of mainstream payments and financial services,” commented company representatives.
Both payment giants have played a significant role in the development of the blockchain industry, especially in TradFi and banking. Their absence in this sector has become very noticeable.
WhiteBIT plans to promote cryptocurrencies to the masses
Perhaps the most important way Visa supports crypto companies is through its association with major banks. Visa is the largest card network in the world and processes about 242 billion transactions per year.
In a press release, WhiteBIT stated its intention to use Visa's wide network of banking and fintech partners:
“The collaboration aims to support WhiteBIT in building sustainable relationships with banks and fintech companies that partner with Visa and are interested in introducing crypto-related products.”
Evgeny Lisnyak, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Fintech and Venture Projects at Visa CISSEE, noted that the company sees “great potential in products related to cryptocurrencies.”
He added that the new memorandum will help WhiteBIT, together with banks, launch card programs and integrate cryptocurrencies into the traditional financial sector.
Visa is exploring the possibility of paying for gas using cards
In further evidence that Visa is betting on the development of cryptocurrencies, this week the company conducted a test of paying for gas using Ethereum-based cards.
To do this, Visa used the ERC-4337 standard and the paymaster contract to make transactions in Ethereum without directly owning ETH.
The Goerli testnet was used for testing, as well as existing open source tools such as the userop.js library from Stackup.
