As the use of digital currencies gathers traction, Visa Inc, the largest payment processing company of the world, launched a worldwide crypto advisory service for its financial customers and businesses on Wednesday.

According to the company, the move is intended at financial institutions wanting to recruit or keep consumers with crypto services, shops interested in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and central banks looking at digital currencies.

Visa’s services include teaching institutions about cryptocurrencies, allowing customers to utilise Visa’s network for digital offers, and assisting with backend operations.

According to a new worldwide research conducted by Visa, more than 40 per cent of the cryptocurrency owners asked stated they would transfer their primary bank to one that offers crypto-related goods in the next 12 months.

The payments processing company will also be launching new services this year that will give the opportunity to its customers to buy, sell and keep custody digital currency. This service will be provided through its banking partners.

A number of other features available to Visa customers allows the customers to get bitcoin as rewards on purchases. The clients of the company will also be able to use of USD Coin, a stablecoin cryptocurrency, using its vast network. The value of USD Coin is linked directly to the US dollar. USD Coin can be used by the company’s clients as payments for transactions on its payment network.

However, according to Visa’s chief financial officer, Vasant Prabhu, there needs to be stability in the price of  cryptocurrrencies if some of them such as bitcoin are to be accepted and used as a medium of exchange and payments widely.

“If the price is going to fluctuate from $60,000 to $50,000 in a few hours, it’s a very difficult thing for a merchant to accept (bitcoin) as a currency,” Prabhu said.

“I don’t know if cryptocurrencies like bitcoin will ever be a medium of exchange. Stablecoins will,” he said, adding that Visa would facilitate such transactions when the time was right.

(Adapted from BusinessToday.in)