Shalini Nagarajan

Payments giant Visa reportedly seeks to meet customer requests to convert digital assets into fiat payments, similar to how it converts foreign currencies.&nbsp;



“We’ve been testing how to actually accept settlement payments from issuers in USDC starting on Ethereum and paying out in USDC on Ethereum,” Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said during the StarkWare Sessions 2023 event in Tel Aviv. “So, these are large value settlement payments.”



He noted that the effort would clone foreign currency exchange executed on the card network’s payment platform.



Global settlement with digital assets and fiat currencies is an area in which <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/visa">Visa</a> wants to build “muscle memory,” Cointelegraph <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/visa-s-crypto-strategy-targets-stablecoin-settlements">reported</a>, Sunday.



“The same way that we can convert between dollars in euros on a cross-border transaction, we should be able to convert between digital tokenized dollars and traditional dollars,” he said.&nbsp;



Visa didn’t return Blockworks’ request for comment by press time.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">. <a href="https://twitter.com/cuysheffield?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cuysheffield</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Visa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@visa</a> have fell into the rabbit hole of Account Abstraction! This is huge! <a href="https://t.co/CFniLLBq5C">pic.twitter.com/CFniLLBq5C</a>&mdash; Starknet-Ecosystem.com ✨ (@StarkNetEco) <a href="https://twitter.com/StarkNetEco/status/1622212729061646339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Visa announced the use of <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usdc">USDC</a>, a stablecoin backed by the US dollar, to settle a transaction with the network over Ethereum in March 2021.



“We’re seeing wallets and crypto native neo-banks building payment products entirely with digital currency, and we want to meet these companies where they are,” <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/visa-partners-with-50-crypto-platforms-on-card-programs">Sheffield told Blockworks</a> at the time. “The ability to make settlement payments to Visa in digital currencies could offer meaningful benefits and efficiencies, particularly for fintechs who run their business in crypto.”



Visa hasn’t yet integrated blockchain tech to support regular money movement on its network, but is currently exploring the move. Still, the company has already launched a blockchain-powered business-to-business payments network called <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190611005296/en/">B2B Connect</a>.



It was among the first financial companies to embrace both blockchain and cryptocurrencies. To help clients and partners explore opportunities in the space, the firm launched a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/visa-launches-crypto-advisory-unit">crypto advisory practice</a> in late 2021.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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Visa Eyes High-Value USDC Settlement Payments on Ethereum

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_62444f1e80541" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The creator economy has an estimated market size of more than $100 billion</li>
 <li>The company previously revealed its partnership with Micah Johnson, a former professional baseball player and founder of Aku</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Visa has launched a program to help content creators grow their businesses through NFTs.



The payment company is looking to select entrepreneurs working in art, music, fashion and film who currently, or plan to, incorporate NFTs (non-fungible tokens) into their business models.



Roughly 50 million artists, musicians and others publish content as a source of income, according to <a href="https://signalfire.com/blog/creator-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Signal Fire</a>. The creator economy has an estimated market size of more than $100 billion, a report by <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/creator-earnings-benchmark-report/#toc-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Influencer Marketing Hub</a> found.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“We’ve been studying the NFT ecosystem and its potential impacts on the future of commerce, retail and social media,” Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, said in a statement. “Through the Visa Creator Program, we want to help this new breed of small and micro businesses tap into new mediums for digital commerce.”



Visa <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/visa-partners-with-former-mlb-player-to-arm-nft-creators/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first revealed</a> its idea for the creator program in October. The company at the time noted its partnership with Micah Johnson, a former professional baseball player who created entertainment and media company <a href="https://akuworld.io" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aku</a>.



“In the early days of my NFT career, I relied on a community of NFT experts and advocates to ground me in the new world,” Johnson said in a statement. “I’m excited to work with Visa in providing that same type of mentorship to emerging artists setting out on their NFT journey.”



The program aims to help selected creators “deepen their fluency in crypto commerce and traditional payments,” according to the company.



The cohort of creators will be “a small enough size to facilitate community-building and support technical mentorship,” a Visa spokesperson told Blockworks. Those with “inspirational mission-based stories” will be selected, the representative added.



A stipend, which Visa declined to specify, will also be offered to creators in the program.&nbsp;



Visa’s team of crypto product and strategy leaders will cover topics such as evaluating trade-offs between underlying blockchain networks, smart contracts and NFT marketplaces.



The company will also provide opportunities for creators to engage with Visa’s clients and partners.



The program launch comes after Visa <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/visa-steps-into-the-metaverse-with-first-nft-purchase/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bought a CryptoPunk</a> for $150,000 in ethereum in August. Sheffield noted at the time that the company purchased it to get “a first-hand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store and leverage an NFT.”



Visa also recently <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/visa-launches-crypto-advisory-unit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">created a crypto advisory practice</a> as a way to help its clients and partners evaluate and pursue potential opportunities in the space.



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Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



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Visa Launches Program for NFT-focused Entrepreneurs

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_6128dccaf8914" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Some market players saw the NFT purchase as a way for major corporations like Visa to show interest and support in the crypto-world, while others called it a marketing scheme</li>
 <li>“A question to ask is, What do NFTs have anything to do with Visa’s business model? I just don’t see it. But I do understand why they would do it to learn more about the industry and get closer to people,” Booth said.</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Earlier this week, Visa made headlines for purchasing a $150,000 non-fungible token (NFT) of a CryptoPunk, a digital avatar with bright green eyes and red lips. While the news came and went, Visa’s Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield told Blockworks this won’t be the company’s only NFT purchase.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We plan to continue adding additional NFTs to our collection with the goal of supporting the diverse group of artists and creators working in this space,” Sheffield said. </blockquote>



The company’s excitement about this project was less about any ‘individual punk,’ and more about the CryptoPunk collection as a whole and what it represents, he said, which is the beginnings of a new chapter for digital commerce.



“We’re excited to add <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/visa-steps-into-the-metaverse-with-first-nft-purchase/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CryptoPunk 7610</a> to our collection of artifacts that chart and celebrate the past, present, and future of commerce,” Sheffield said. 



The company worked with Anchorage, a digital asset platform for institutional players, to make the purchase happen. “We have been building this expertise and we’re better positioned to help our clients navigate this new category of commerce,” he added. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="512" height="512" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sheffield-Visa.jpeg" alt="Visa's Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffleld" class="wp-image-7174" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sheffield-Visa.jpeg?w=512 512w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sheffield-Visa.jpeg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sheffield-Visa.jpeg?w=150 150w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sheffield-Visa.jpeg?w=257 257w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sheffield-Visa.jpeg?w=261 261w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sheffield-Visa.jpeg?w=219 219w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Sheffield-Visa.jpeg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /><figcaption>Visa’s Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield </figcaption></figure></div>



Some market players saw the NFT purchase as a way for major corporations like Visa to show interest and support in the crypto-world, while others called it a marketing scheme. Sheffield didn’t address the alleged comments about whether or not the purchase was a marketing stunt when asked by Blockworks.&nbsp;



However, Sheffield said, “one of the reasons we purchased a CryptoPunk is because we want to understand, firsthand, what it takes to acquire, custody and interact with an NFT, from the infrastructure requirements, to the actual transactions, to the storage.”&nbsp;



Large companies often seek exposure across a lot of different things, Entrepreneur and Author of ‘The Price of Tomorrow’ Jeff Booth said. “A question to ask is, What do NFTs have anything to do with Visa’s business model? I just don’t see it. But I do understand why they would do it to learn more about the industry and get closer to people,” Booth said.&nbsp;



With that said, the NFT market has been booming in recent weeks, with over $900 million in sales for August, which is the largest month ever for the industry, according to NFT <a href="https://nonfungible.com/market/history" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> tracker NonFungible. 



Aside from Visa, the appeal of digital art has attracted major organizations like Budweiser and the National Basketball Association to Entrepreneurs and Billionaires like <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/alethea-ai-fetch-ai-embed-ai-into-booming-nft-market/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mark Cuban</a>. 



“If a market is growing very fast, no matter why, there’s a lot of companies that want to know why and they’ll play into it,” Booth said. All in all, the industry isn’t showing a shortage of cash or buyers, Blockworks has <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/nft-craze-rages-on-as-august-sales-near-900m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. Although Visa spoke about their recent purchase, Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Budweiser, did not respond to requests by Blockworks for comment about its three NFT purchases.



Want more investor-focused content on digital assets? <a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join us</a> September 13th and 14th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in NYC. Use code ARTICLE for $75 off your ticket. <a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Buy it now</a>.