Visa Wants To Work With Exchanges, Wallets On 'Digital Gold' Bitcoin

Yesterday, in an earnings call, Visa CEO Alfred Kelly said that the firm wants to "work with wallets and exchanges" on handling crypto, and has called bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies "digital gold." Cryptocurrency News reports: During his talk, Kelly spent a significant amount of time discussing crypto. After differentiating a divide between "cryptocurrencies that represent new assets such as bitcoin" and "digital currencies and stablecoins" backed by fiat holdings, he stated: "We see all [cryptocurrencies] as digital gold. They are predominantly held as assets that are not used as a form of payment in a significant way at this point. Our strategy here is to work with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase these currencies using their Visa credentials or to cash out onto our Visa credential to make fiat purchase[s]."

The Visa chief appeared to be keen to leave the door open for all crypto projects that show promise, pledging that should "a specific digital currency become a recognized means of exchange, there's no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies." And Kelly appeared ready to court the custom of stablecoin issuers -- as well as digital currency-issuing central banks. He said: "For [...] stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, these are an emerging payments innovation that could have the potential to be used for global commerce, much like any other fiat currency. We think of digital currencies running on public blockchains as additional networks [...] we see them as part of our network of networks strategy. [...] We are the clear leader in this space."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.