Visa Launches Crypto Advisory Services — Says ‘Digital Currencies Are Taking Greater Hold in Popular Consciousness’

Payments giant Visa has launched global crypto advisory services. The company’s executive says: “We’ve seen a material shift in our clients’ mindset in the last year, from a desire to explore and experiment with crypto, to actually building a strategy and product roadmap.”

Payments giant Visa announced Wednesday the launch of its “global crypto advisory services,” an offering within Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA). “This comes at a moment when digital currencies are taking greater hold in the popular consciousness,” Visa noted.

The company explained that its consultants and product experts have gained expertise from working with more than 60 crypto platforms. Visa noted that they can help “financial institutions evaluate the crypto opportunity, develop concrete strategies, and pilot new user experiences and innovations like crypto rewards programs and CBDC-integrated consumer wallets.”

Claudio Di Nella, head of Visa Europe’s consulting & analytics, opined:

We’ve seen a material shift in our clients’ mindset in the last year, from a desire to explore and experiment with crypto, to actually building a strategy and product roadmap.

“We came to Visa to learn more about crypto and stablecoins and the use cases that are most relevant for our retail and commercial business lines,” said Uma Wilson, executive vice president at UMB Bank.

On Wednesday, Visa also released a report titled “The Crypto Phenomenon: Consumer Attitudes & Usage.” It includes a survey of more than 6,000 financial decision-makers across eight markets: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, South Africa, the U.K., and the U.S.

According to the survey findings:

Awareness of crypto is almost universal at 94% globally among survey participants with discretion over their household finances.

In addition, “Nearly one in three crypto-aware adults already own or use cryptocurrency, and the majority of that group (62%) say their use has increased in the past year.”

The survey also found that “Among current crypto owners, 81% express interest in crypto-linked cards, which allow you to convert and spend crypto at the retailers where you shop in the same way you can use a debit or credit card.” Meanwhile, “84% are interested in crypto rewards, which allow you to earn crypto as a reward for your card spending.”

Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, recently said: “Crypto is becoming cultural. It’s becoming cool.” He explained that a “whole new class” of mainstream consumers are entering the crypto space because of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This week, Visa participated in a funding round for crypto transaction monitoring and forensics platform TRM.

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