Visa expects Bitcoin to go mainstream very quickly, driving its use at 70 million merchants

Visa CEO Al Kelly predicts that cryptocurrencies could become "massively mainstream" within five years. He is getting Visa involved in the mainstreaming of Bitcoin and further confirmed that Visa is working to promote Bitcoin spending and will make the cryptocurrency usable in the 70 million stores that accept Visa.
Visa CEO Al Kelly talked about Bitcoin and his company’s cryptocurrency strategy during an update on the Leadership Next podcast with Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt on Tuesday. Given the recent rise in Bitcoin prices, he was asked what this means for his credit card business.
“I like to break crypto into two parts,” Kelly began. “One is the more speculative assets” or “digital gold,” he explained, and he put Bitcoin in this category. The CEO elaborated:
“In this category, we’re trying to do two things. One is to enable Visa card purchases of Bitcoin.”
Second, Visa is "working with a number of bitcoin wallets to allow bitcoin to be converted into a currency so it can be used immediately at any of the 70 million merchants around the world that accept Visa," Kelly added.
“Another category of cryptocurrencies are digital currencies,” he continued, adding:
“There, we see a strong potential for these currencies to become a new payment instrument. In fact, it could be an accelerator for some of the emerging markets as we look around the world.”
He went on to reveal that Visa is working with “a lot of players” in this category. “We’re working with about 35 different ones,” he specified, “and these are all stablecoins that are backed by fiat currencies.”
His statement echoes what Visa explained during its first quarter 2021 earnings call. “Our strategy here is to work with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase these currencies using their Visa cards, or cash out to our Visa cards and make fiat purchases at any of the 70 million merchants around the world that accept Visa,” the company informed its stakeholders.
Kelly was also asked during Tuesday’s podcast what Visa’s position is given that cryptocurrencies are being used to lower transaction costs so users don’t have to pay as much in fees to Visa and Mastercard as they do today.
“One of the things I actually like about our business is that we don’t pick winners and losers,” he described. “As you and I sit here today, I don’t know to what extent cryptocurrencies are going to take off. Are we going to be saying in five years that this was a fad and not a big deal? Or is it going to be mainstream? I’m not smart enough to know, but what I can say for sure is making sure our company is involved today so that if it takes off, we’re helping to move that wealth.”
He then compared Visa’s business model today to its previous business model, clarifying that Visa used to be about people using its products to buy and sell goods and services. “Today, we’ve turned the company into a company about the movement of money around the world, so any kind of money movement, we want to be involved.” He affirmed:
“If it takes off, we can get our fair share and maybe more. Because we anticipate that cryptocurrencies could be very successful, we certainly want to be prepared, and I think we’re off to a very good start.”