Visa Introduces New USDC and Bitcoin Rewards Card

Payments giant Visa recently announced a new partnership with Circle Internet Financial for its stablecoin USDC. The company also announced a partnership with BlockFi earlier in the week.

Visa shows more confidence in cryptocurrencies

Visa is doubling down on cryptocurrencies with two new partnerships within one week. It recently announced a Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card via a BlockFi partnership. The card will offer 1.5% of purchases rewarded to users as Bitcoin. It also offers a lump sum of $250 in Bitcoin if the users spend $3,000 in the first three months of activating their card. The card will come with a $200 annual fee and be issued by Evolve Bank & Trust. The card currently has a waitlist.

New partnership with Circle

Visa is also working with Circle to integrate its stablecoin USDC in its payment network. The cryptocurrency is pegged 1:1 to the fiat US Dollar and operated on the Ethereum blockchain. Its current market value is about $2.9 billion. Forbes reported today that Circle and Visa are working to “help select Visa credit card issuers start integrating the USDC software into their platforms.”

Cuy Sheffield, head of the crypto at Visa, commented,

“We continue to think of Visa as a network of networks. Blockchain networks and stablecoins, like USDC, are just additional networks.”

Adding crypto capabilities adds more value to its users.

In October, the payments firm partnered with Coinbase to offer a Coinbase branded Visa card. This will allow users to spend their digital currencies in any place where Visa is accepted. The firm has tried something similar with Shift Payments in 2015.

With new partnerships and integrations, Visa seems to have accepted that cryptocurrencies will have more value for people in the future. It is working to be a pioneering traditional payments service that integrates digital currencies. Its rival firms are yet to catch on with Bitcoin. PayPal has recently shown some interest in digital currencies.