Popular payment provider Visa is piloting a service dubbed Visa Crypto API, an initiative that would allow fintech firms to add cryptocurrency offerings to their operations.
Business Insider reports today that Visa’s fintech clients will be allowed to tap the service to enable their customers to buy, sell, custody digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) held by its partner Anchorage.
Although the service is still in beta, Visa has onboarded digital bank First Boulevard as its first partner to trial the program.
If everything goes as planned, Visa will launch the program on a wider scale, which could be accessed by its more than 70 million fintech clients, with more cryptocurrencies and other features to be added.
“It’s an important step to launch a broader suite of crypto API capabilities to Visa’s network of clients to help them integrate and interact with these new crypto assets and blockchain networks,” Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, told Business Insider.
Crypto Adoption
Sheffield added that the payment provider chose First Boulevard to trial the program because of its commitment to educate the Black race, who have continued to show increased interest in cryptocurrencies.
Launched last year following George Floyd’s killing, First Boulevard has been an advocate for the Black community, driving change and urging people to build generational wealth.
Reacting to the development, Donald Hawkins, founder and CEO of First Boulevard, commented that all the challenges the Black race has encountered over the years ranging from police brutality to real estate issues point to money.
Hawkins said that these issues have continued to linger because people lack money or understanding of how it works.
Since part of Visa’s pilot program aims to bridge the gap between the black community and the crypto industry’s growth, Sheffield said he envisions crypto as the gateway to Blacks’ financial literacy.
An Active Player
Over the years, Visa has been instrumental in the crypto space’s growth since the industry started gaining traction.
The payment provider has helped 35 crypto firms, including Coinbase and BlockFi, issue bank cards to their customers to facilitate payments and has continued to develop opportunities to process crypto transactions like other settlement methods quickly.
