Visa has decided to launch a service intended to assist fintechs, merchants, and businesses on the potential use cases and management of stablecoins. The cards major, headquartered in the U.S., unveiled a Stablecoin Advisory Practice on Monday, December 15.
Explaining the initiative, Visa said that it wishes to assist its clients in developing payment strategies compatible with the evolving digital finance landscape. In the last two years, crypto assets including stablecoins have emerged to be notable elements of digital finance with major economies like the U.S., the EU, as well as the U.A.E among others, having adopted them in one way or the other.
As part of its services through this initiative, Visa plans to guide interested clients on topics including stablecoin-based real-time payments and third party platform use-cases.
“We help clients identify the right customers and best portfolio actions that drive acquisition, engagement and retention. For example lifecycle management, loyalty programme optimization, and usage growth,” Visa said in its announcement.
The management of wallets, on-file cards, and digital banking practices are other topics Visa wishes to educate its clientele on through this stablecoin-centred initiative.
As per DeFiLlama, the present market cap of the stablecoin sector stands at $309.8 billion. E-commerce mammoths like Amazon and Walmart are reportedly considering the launch of their own stablecoins – pegged to the USD. Using stablecoins for transactions reduces the cost paid to intermediaries in TradFi, reduces the time of transfer to near-instant, and overall reduces the reliance on cash notes. Additionally, transactions facilitated through stablecoins leave a permanent log on the associated blockchain – that makes the financial system more transparent.
In recent times, Visa has taken a number of steps to explore stablecoin-focussed services. In November, for instance, Visa started testing stablecoin payouts for gig-economy workers. It has also started to explore stablecoins as cash alternatives for treasury operations.