Visa CEO: Bitcoin is Not a Payment System
Visa, the world’s largest credit card company, is widely regarded as
being hostile to Bitcoin. It would seem intuitive that a traditional
financial provider should look unkindly on anything that threatens
its hegemony. Publicly, though, the company has had very little to
say about Bitcoin, preferring to focus on matters within its own domain
. In a CNBC interview on Wednesday, the corporation’s CEO broke his silence
, opining – predictably – that Bitcoin is not a payments system.
Legacy Finance Meets Future Money
In an interview on Wednesday, recorded at New York’s National Retail
Federation conference the previous day, Kelly was pressed for his thoughts
on Bitcoin. “I don’t view it as payment system player,” said the CEO. “We at
Visa won’t process transactions that are cryptocurrency-based. We will only
process fiat currency-based transactions.
This tallies with the actions of Visa subsidiary Wavecrest, which cut off debit
card services to dozens of European crypto card companies less than a fortnight
ago. At the time, Visa denied that it was striking back at the threat posed by
cryptocurrencies. The company was adamant that it was irregularities on
behalf of Wavecrest clients that triggered the ban.
Visa stated that the crypto cards had been suspended due to “continued non-
compliance with our operating rules”, and insisted it wasn’t part of a targeted
campaign against cryptocurrency. Many in the crypto community weren’t so
sure, and Alfred Kelly’s comments this week will only bolster their suspicions.
They arrived on the same day that the US Treasury described cryptocurrencies
as an “evolving threat”, whose undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence
made the usual noises about bitcoin and terrorism.
Visa Vetoes Cryptocurrency Support
My take is that bitcoin is much more today a commodity that somebody
could invest in; and honestly, somewhat of a speculative commodity,”
Kelly told CNBC. Given that bitcoin has been unspendable for everyday
purchases for some time on account of high fees, this is an argument that
carries merit. While alternatives such as bitcoin cash can be used for peer-
to-peer transactions and micro-payments, the cryptocurrency market as
a whole has yet to threaten Visa’s supremacy.
Corporations exist to protect their own interests, and the CEO of Visa
was never going to exhort the world to start buying bitcoin. Cryptocurrency
companies intent on bridging the gap between fiat and crypto will know
what they have suspected from the start: they’ll need to do so without the
support of Visa and its global subsidiaries.
Do you think Visa feels threatened by the rise of cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below.
source. https://news.bitcoin.com/visa-ceo-bitcoin-not-payment-system/