Banking

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Mastercard and Bakkt Partner to Offer Crypto Loyalty Programs

Andrew Orr · · Add Comment

Mastercard and Bakkt announced a partnership to make it easier for merchants, banks and fintechs in the U.S. to offer cryptocurrency loyalty programs.

Mastercard will also integrate crypto into its loyalty solutions, enabling its partners to offer cryptocurrency as rewards and create fungibility between loyalty points and other digital assets. This means that consumers can earn and spend rewards in cryptocurrency instead of traditional loyalty points and seamlessly convert their crypto holdings to pay for purchases.

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Visa Announces Layer 2 Blockchain for Stablecoins and CBDCs

Andrew Orr · · Add Comment

Visa has announced a Layer 2 project for cryptocurrency that aims to be a universal exchange hub for stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDC).

The idea is to create a digital currency equivalent of the existing international payment experience—one that lets you pay for something in another country with a debit or credit card that draws funds from an account in your home country.

Also: “Visa, for instance, says the proposed base layer for its universal payments channel is Ethereum.”

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Visa Will Accept USD Coin Cryptocurrency to Settle Transactions

Andrew Orr · · Add Comment

USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar, meaning that one USDC is equal to one dollar. Visa announced that it will accept these coins to settle transactions on its network in partnership with Crypto.com.

Traditionally, if a customer chooses to use a Crypto.com Visa card to pay for a coffee, the digital currency needs to be converted into traditional money. The wallet will deposit fiat currency in a bank account, to be wired to Visa at the end of the day to settle any transactions, adding cost and complexity for businesses. Visa’s latest step strips out the need to convert digital coin into traditional money in order for the transaction to be settled.