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Solana’s Visa Voyage: Navigating An 8% Weekly Dip Despite Integration Success

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Solana’s native coin, SOL, experienced a notable shift in its price following a successful partnership announcement with Vis on September 5th. Initially, SOL witnessed a promising surge of approximately 7%. 

However, this gain turned out to be short-lived, as SOL subsequently tumbled by almost 8% over the course of the past week and experienced a 1.93% decrease within a 24-hour timeframe.

As of the latest price analysis, SOL is currently trading at $19.40, accompanied by a 24-hour trading volume of $295,237,830, reflecting a 24% decrease in trading activity. 

CoinMarketcap

SOL maintains its position as the 9th-ranked cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap with a market capitalization of $7 billion. Technical indicators suggest a bearish sentiment, while the Fear & Greed Index registers a 41 score, indicating a prevailing sense of fear among investors.

Over the last 30 days, SOL has displayed 12 out of 30 (40%) green days and exhibited price volatility of 8.48%. Coincodex’s data also shows a predominantly bearish sentiment among market analysts, with 25 technical analysis indicators signaling bearish trends and only 3 indicating bullish signals.

Solana Foundation Launches Hyperdrive Hackathon

Nevertheless, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon for SOL as the Solana Foundation has unveiled an upcoming hackathon called “Hyperdrive.” This hackathon aims to incentivize the development of new tools and applications on the Solana network and is set to offer prizes and seed funding totaling up to $1 million. 

The Hyperdrive competition is open to virtually anyone interested and commenced on the day of the announcement, running until October 15th. Matty Taylor, Head of Growth at the Foundation, expressed the organization’s commitment to the network’s growth and expansion, stating:

Hyperdrive will help accelerate this by allowing anyone with an internet connection to compete as they launch their new startups on Solana.

The Solana Foundation has a track record of hosting successful hackathons, with over 50,000 participants, the launch of over 3,000 projects, and total venture funding raised by winners amounting to $600 million.

The top prize for the Hyperdrive hackathon includes $50,000 in USDC and tickets to Solana’s Breakpoint 2024 conference, marking an enticing opportunity for developers and startups to get involved in the Solana ecosystem and potentially shape its future.

Related Reading | Breaking: Solana Joins Forces with Visa to Revolutionize Stablecoin Settlements

Solana’s Slide: Daily Active Addresses Plummet Amidst Partnerships & Adversity

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The once-thriving Solana blockchain is grappling with a significant decline in daily active addresses, reaching its lowest point since tracking began in late 2020. Recent data from The Block Research reveals that as of August 31, the network’s daily active addresses, calculated using a seven-day moving average, plunged to about 204,000.

Source:  The Block Data

The downward tre­nd in active users for Solana has bee­n worsened by various factors. One significant factor is the­ collapse of the crypto exchange­ FTX in November of the pre­vious year. This event, along with the­ SEC categorizing its native SOL token as a se­curity, casts a shadow over Solana’s future prospects.

Rebecca Stevens, a data analyst at The Block Research, commented on the situation, stating that the Solana ecosystem had been experiencing a decline in active users even before the FTX collapse. She noted that the blockchain’s close associations with the exchange and Alameda Research had negatively impacted its reputation. 

In addition, Steve­ns emphasized that the SEC’s accusations about SOL’s se­curity classification had caused even more­ downward pressure on the toke­n’s value. This ultimately led to its de­listing from various prominent U.S. platforms, including eToro and Robinhood.

Solana’s Resilience: Notable Partnerships Emerge

Despite the challenges and declining user numbers, the network is not without its resilience. The blockchain has been forging notable partnerships that underscore its determination to remain a key player in the crypto world.

Just yesterday, the network announced a groundbreaking partnership with Visa, a global payment leader. Solana’s lightning-fast blockchain technology will now take center stage in Visa’s ambitious expansion of its stablecoin settlement pilot program, ushering in a new era of speed and efficiency for cross-border payments.

This partnership holds tre­mendous potential to revolutionize­ the way transactions are carried out, e­nsuring unprecedente­d speed and efficie­ncy. Moreover, Solana Pay, a pionee­ring decentralized payme­nts protocol, has recently joined force­s with Shopify, providing countless businesses with an innovative­ payment solution.

This collaboration enables merchants to enjoy real-time access to their funds while gaining greater control over working capital, liquidity, and liability protection. Additionally, Solana’s joint effort with Mastercard and other public blockchain companies to develop a new set of standards known as Crypto Credentials has added to the blockchain’s growing prominence.

However, the network is actively seeking to reinvent itself through strategic partnerships and innovative solutions, demonstrating its commitment to remaining a formidable player in the evolving blockchain landscape. 

Solana Surges: 88% Bullish Sentiment, 6% Rise On The Wings Of New Partnership

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Solana (SOL) has defied the broader market trend, registering an impressive 88% bullish sentiment and a 7% surge within a 24-hour timeframe, largely attributed to its recent high-profile partnership. As reported by TronWeekly, Solana has formally joined forces with Visa, a renowned global payments industry leader. 

Source: PricePredictions

This strategic alliance leverages Solana’s exceptionally fast blockchain technology to bolster Visa’s ambitious expansion of its stablecoin settlement pilot program, promising a revolutionary era of swift and efficient cross-border payments.

Currently, SOL is actively trading at $20.50, marking a significant increase in its 24-hour trading volume by 50% and a concurrent uptick in its market capitalization by 4.14%. In the short term, PricePredictions’ machine learning algorithm indicates a bullish trend for SOL, hinting at a potential upswing over the coming hours.

The SOL community is actively participating in the excitement on social media platforms, with many expressing their enthusiasm for the coin’s recent surge. One crypto enthusiast stated, “The SOL response is a good indication of the current market environment.” This sentiment has left many wondering about the potential implications if such enthusiasm were to materialize during a more bullish market.

Solana Price Prediction

SOL is currently demonstrating notable strength in its price movement. It has surged above the $20 mark and comfortably trades above the 100 Simple Moving Average (SMA). Investors and traders are closely monitoring these developments for potential trading opportunities.

Source: CoinMarketcap

On the upside, the immediate resistance for SOL stands near the $21.47 level. However, the first major resistance point to watch out for is situated at approximately $23.65. A decisive breakthrough above this critical resistance level could trigger a significant uptrend, potentially propelling the price toward the next resistance at $27.57.

Conversely, if SOL encounters difficulty surpassing the $23.65 resistance, it may experience a fresh decline in its value. In such a scenario, the first major support level comes into play at approximately $17.55. 

A breach below this support level could signal a bearish trend, with the price potentially declining towards the $15.37 support level. Should this materialize, there exists a risk of further downside movement in the SOL market.

Breaking: Solana Joins Forces with Visa to Revolutionize Stablecoin Settlements

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Solana has entered into a partnership with Visa, a global payments leader. Solana’s lightning-fast blockchain technology will now play a pivotal role in Visa’s ambitious expansion of its stablecoin settlement pilot program, propelling cross-border payments into a new era of speed and efficiency.

Visa’s Bold Move to Leverage Solana for Faster Settlements

According to a press release, at the forefront of modernizing cross-border money movement, Visa is embracing Solana’s high-performance blockchain alongside merchant acquirers WorldPay and Nuvei. Together, they’re set to redefine the landscape of stablecoin settlement payments, focusing on USDC.

Visa has already conducted live pilots with issuers and acquirers, swiftly moving millions of USDC across the Solana and Ethereum blockchain networks to settle fiat-denominated payments. This advancement promises nearly instantaneous payment authorizations for Visa cardholders worldwide.

Behind the scenes, Visa’s treasury and settlement systems have quietly facilitated the daily clearing, settlement, and movement of billions in transactions. This complex dance involves coordination among nearly 15,000 financial institutions across over 25 currencies.

Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, shared the significance of this collaboration, stating:

By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury.

The partnership between Visa and Crypto.com has been a pioneering example of stablecoin settlement, eliminating cumbersome currency conversion processes and costly international wire transfers. Crypto.com successfully utilized USDC to fulfill settlement obligations for Visa card transactions in Australia.

Jeremy Allaire, Co-founder and CEO of Circle, the company behind USDC, expressed excitement about the expanding pilot, describing how it opens up new possibilities for payments, commerce, and financial applications.

As per the press statement, Worldpay and Nuvei, global acquirers serving a diverse range of merchants, are set to benefit greatly from Visa’s stablecoin settlement capabilities. They can now receive settlement payouts in USDC, offering their merchants an attractive alternative to traditional fiat currencies.

Visa’s decision to add Solana as a supported blockchain for USDC settlement payments is a game-changer. With 400 millisecond block times and impressive transaction speeds, its high performance positions Visa as one of the first major payment companies to utilize Solana for live settlement payments at scale.

Related Reading | Grayscale Ruling Triggers Bitcoin Volatility While SEC’s ETF Delay Adds Uncertainty

Visa Expands Crypto Payments Reach: Embracing Ethereum Account Abstraction

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The prominent payment company Visa remains committed to investigating digital asset payments and researching cutting-edge technologies that facilitate seamless onboarding and smooth digital transactions within cryptocurrency. Following their examination of Account Abstraction for secure automated recurring payments in self-custodial wallets, Visa is now exploring utilizing Account Abstraction on Ethereum to revamp gas fees.

Visa Ventures Into Ethereum’s Account Abstraction For Crypto Payments Advancements

Visa has successfully implemented two sets of Paymaster contracts on the Ethereum Goerli testnet, demonstrating their efforts to enhance user convenience by revamping gas fees on the blockchain. The implementation of ERC-4337 enables direct ownership of smart contract accounts by their respective owners. Combining Account Abstraction and Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility brings additional benefits and advantages for end users.

Guy Sheffield, the cryptocurrency head at Visa, took to Twitter to announce the deployment of Visa’s inaugural paymaster smart contract on the ETH Goerli testnet. This development coincides with ongoing exploration and experimentation of account abstraction and ERC-4337.

According to blockchain specialist Cygaar, the Visa team developed a paymaster contract that initially obtains the ETH exchange rate for the ERC20 token (L110) and subsequently transfers the corresponding quantity of ERC20 tokens to its address (L112). In the subsequent experiment, a paymaster contract was established to cover the gas fees associated with user transactions fully.

Expressing his enthusiasm for the recent progress, Raj Parekh, former Visa Crypto executive and current CEO of Portal, expressed his optimism, stating that 

“A Visa-powered paymaster could be a large driver of growth for the ecosystem.”

Visa’s Experiment Findings 

Visa has released a report regarding its trials with ERC4337 (Account Abstraction). The Ethereum mainnet implemented ERC-4337 on March 1, 2023, enabling smart contracts to conduct transactions on behalf of the user.

Visa conducted an experiment that involved developing two prototypes to showcase potential applications of a novel Paymaster flow. The prototype demonstrated how the Paymaster could facilitate the utilization of ERC20 tokens for gas fee payments, while the second prototype showcased the ability to fully cover the transaction’s gas fees.

Using the initial Paymaster contract, the experiment showcased the ability to make payments using ERC-20 tokens via the ERC-4337 Paymaster. It examined the feasibility of users paying transaction fees with alternative tokens, such as a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar or potentially a future Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

By incorporating the ERC-4337 account abstraction and the forthcoming smart contract wallets like Soul Wallet, there will be an enhancement in wallet security. Vitalik Buterin suggests implementing social recovery for hot wallets, which contain a small portion of an individual or organization’s funds while utilizing multisig setups for cold wallets that safeguard a person or organization’s savings.

ETH Price

As of writing, Ethereum (ETH) is traded at $187.88. Over the past 24 hours, Ethereum has experienced a 1.07% increase in value.

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Source: Tradingview.com

Bitcoin’s Market Cap Surges Past These Payment Behemoths

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Bitcoin, the world’s most influential crypto has eclipsed Visa and Mastercard, two of the biggest competitors in the payment processing industry.

According to data from coinmarketcap, BTC’s market cap has reached $480 billion, while Visa and Mastercard’s market caps stood at $460 billion and $345 billion respectively.

Overall, the crypto market showed an increase of more than $80 billion in the third quarter of February, despite the recent crackdown by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC].

After a difficult first and second quarter, crypto markets showed signs of a bullish run and gaining momentum, shrugging off any obstacles or bad news including Bitcoin.

The king coin had an impressive debut in 2023 with an over 51% rally. In addition, its third “flippening” of Visa followed 14 days of price rises between January 4 and January 17.

As reported previously by TronWeekly, for the second time in a row, Bitcoin rose above the $24k mark. It surged to a 6-month high defying the traders’ gloomy outlook.

With the market entering the second half of February, BTC gained tremendous traction after numerous users and investors shifted their investments from other altcoins and into the crypto beast.

This is demonstrated by the data from the previous week, which showed that the asset increased by over 11% dominating the trading charts as users exchanged other cryptocurrencies into BTC in response to SEC restrictions.

Here’s How Bitcoin Will Reach $30000

One analyst even forecasted that the leading cryptocurrency would reach $30k in the next weeks.

Bitcoin’s latest support level is $23,000, according to Joe DiPasquale, CEO of cryptocurrency fund manager BitBull Capital, and the coming week is crucial if BTC is to reach $30,000.

“It was critical for Bitcoin to reclaim $23,000 if we were to see more upside action,” he said in an interview. “With February coming to an end, another bullish monthly close may be what the market needs for Bitcoin to test $30,000.”

Furthermore, DiPasquale believes that the market will likely consolidate, if not rise, in the near future, with little room for decline.

At the time of writing this article, BTC was valued at $24,926, with a marginal increase in the past 24 hours. The dominant crypto’s market capitalization stood at $480 billion.

Visa Eyeing Ethereum For ‘Muscle Memory’ Settlement Plans: Report

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Visa has revealed its plans to allow customers to convert digital assets to fiat currencies on its platform. the company is testing the acceptance of USDC settlement payments on Ethereum. The goal is to develop “muscle memory” for settlements and handle large value payments in USDC on the Ethereum platform.

The news was delivered by Cuy Sheffield, head of Visa’s crypto division, at the recent StarkWare Sessions 2023 in Tel Aviv. According to Sheffield, global settlement with digital assets and fiat currencies is one of the key areas in which Visa invests.

The payment giant is working to incorporate blockchain technology into its existing network to facilitate faster transactions. However, settlements currently still take place on the SWIFT system, which has limitations that prevent money from being moved as frequently as desired.

To overcome these limitations, Visa has been testing the acceptance of settlement payments with stablecoins, such as USDC. Sheffield confirmed that the company sees huge potential in the blockchain and digital asset space and is looking to take advantage of its value on existing bank rails and rebuild it on top of blockchain rails using stablecoins.

Visa’s Interest in Ethereum And Stablecoins

Former CEO Al Kelly has also shared the company’s plans for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and private stablecoins, stating that they “have the potential to play a meaningful role in the payments space.” 

Sheffield confirmed the company’s positive outlook on blockchain technology and digital assets, noting that they are exploring ways to take the value that Visa provides on existing bank rails and rebuild it on top of blockchain rails using stablecoins.

Sheffield said:

We’re thinking a lot about how to take some of the value that Visa provides on existing bank rails, with existing forms of beyond in a rebuild that on top of blockchain rails, using stableboards. If we think there are huge opportunities in that area, it just kind of stays on emerging.

Nevertheless, Visa’s plans to allow for the conversion of digital assets to fiat currencies on its platform is a significant step forward in the company’s efforts to build “muscle memory” around settlements, particularly with regard to Ethereum and stablecoins. 

This move highlights the growing interest and adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in the traditional finance sector.

Related Reading | Weekly Market Watch: Bitcoin & Ethereum’s Battle Of Bulls And Bears, Low Cap Tokens Experience Growth

Huobi And Visa Partner To Launch New Global Card

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Popular cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has teamed up with payments behemoth Visa to introduce a brand-new card named Huobi Visa Card across the globe. The agreement, according to the official press release, aims to boost the sector’s development and give customers a more efficient fiat-to-crypto gateway.

Several European countries will be the first to offer the new crypto-Visa Card, with additional regions following soon after. TRON founder and member of the exchange’s global advisory board, Justin Sun, said,

“The launch of the Huobi Visa Card marks a significant milestone in Huobi’s push in making virtual assets accessible to everybody. Huobi and Visa are both prominent leaders in their respective industries.

With the exchange-branded card, the company, according to Sun, hopes to promote “global financial inclusion.”

The company wants to act as a conduit between the cryptocurrency ecosystem and Visa’s extensive worldwide network of merchants and financial institutions, according to Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa.

Sheffield went on to say,

“We’re excited to work with innovative platforms like Huobi to make it easy and seamless for consumers to spend from their crypto balances anywhere Visa is accepted.”

Here’s How Huobi’s New Card Will Work

Users’ crypto accounts (the exchange linked accounts) will be linked to the new crypto Visa Card. By converting the virtual asset balance in their crypto accounts, customers of the exchange can effortlessly use this card to pay for goods and services at any of the 80 million merchant locations worldwide that accept Visa.

Customers may receive cashback in HT, Huobi’s native cryptocurrency token while making purchases with the card. Users are also qualified for several benefits, including access to the exchange earn items, cashback coupons, sure-win coupon airdrops, and APY booster coupons. “Scout,” “Navigator,” “Adventurer,” “Explorer,” and “Expert” are the five ranks of the card.

Visa is not new to cryptocurrency. A proposal outlining how Ethereum users can set up automatic payments directly from their self-custodial wallets was recently published by the company. Banks and other centralized entities will be eliminated as a result.

The biggest names in payments are well aware of cryptocurrencies’ appeal. Consequently, they might not want to miss the celebration. So it comes as no surprise that Visa is upping its cryptocurrency game.

At the time of writing, HT, was trading at $5.33, up 1.4% over the last 24 hours.

Visa is Bringing Auto-payments With Cryptocurrency Wallets

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According to payments giant Visa, cryptocurrency users may someday be able to automatically pay their phone and electricity bills using their self-custodial crypto wallets.

Visa’s thought leadership team on cryptocurrencies put forth a solution in a blog post on December 20 that would let providers automatically “pull” money from users’ Ethereum-powered crypto wallets without requiring the user to manually approve each transaction.

In the traditional banking world, auto payments for recurring bills are commonplace. Users can authorize specific service providers to withdraw money from their preferred bank accounts to pay bills, like a Netflix subscription or a recurring phone bill.

Visa’s new feature can’t be used for self-custody wallets

According to Visa, such a mechanism is not feasible for owners of self-custodial wallets because automated programmable payments that periodically withdraw money from a user’s account “require engineering work.”

This is due to the fact that, in self-custodial wallets, only the user has access to the private keys, necessitating their manual approval of transactions because “a smart contract cannot initiate transactions on its own.”

In its technical article, Visa stated that a new kind of self-custodial wallet called “delegable accounts,” which is based on the “Account Abstraction” (AA) concept, would allow automatic recurring payments in cryptocurrency.

In 2015, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Butering proposed an idea, which essentially makes it possible to combine smart contracts and wallets based on Ethereum into a single account and other use cases.

The Visa team claims that user accounts would “function like smart contracts” through an AA-based self-custody wallet or delegable account, meaning that people could schedule transactions without signing off to initiate each one individually.

The proposal is a part of a larger investigation by the blockchain-friendly company into fresh opportunities for blockchain innovation and a way to get around strict constraints hardcoded into Ethereum transactions.

The development team does acknowledge that, despite the ease with which auto-payments can be integrated into wallets hosted by third parties, such as exchanges, users must still have faith that these parties will properly manage their funds.

This was shown to be a significant risk this year, particularly in light of the failures of FTX, Voyager, BlockFi, and Celsius, to name a few.

Visa Teams Up With FTX To Offer Cryptocurrency Debit Cards In 40 Countries

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CNBC reported today that the payments company, Visa, has teamed up with FTX, a global crypto exchange, to offer cryptocurrency “debit cards” in 40 countries, making it easier for users to spend cryptocurrencies. 

It’s Visa’s new initiative to push crypto further into the mainstream, with over 70 partnerships so far. The deal has come to light when the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has fallen to almost half of what it was last year. Despite falling prices this year, Visa is confident that people will still want to buy things using cryptocurrencies.

This card will link directly to an investor’s FTX cryptocurrency account. Additionally, the CNBC report highlights that Latin America, Asia, and Europe will primarily be their areas of attention. 

However, Visa has partnered with the most popular crypto Exchanges, Binance and Coinbase. Its rival, American credit card company, Mastercard, has also joined the collaboration trend by partnering with Coinbase and Bakkt to offer currency-related services to banks and retailers on its network, the CNBC report said in the statement.

FTX Expanding Its Availability

FTX launched its Visa debit card in the US earlier this year. As a result of its long-standing partnership with Visa and its extensive global network of partner retailers, they now want to make these cards widely available to expand its availability.

In a phone interview, Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu told CNBC that the new crypto card enables clients to spend cryptocurrency without transferring it off an exchange.

Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu also asserts that:

“We don’t have a position as a company on what the value of cryptocurrency should be or whether it’s a good thing in the long run — as long as people have things they want to buy, we want to facilitate it.”

In the CNBC report, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried acknowledges that there are multiple ironies in cryptocurrency partnerships. Cryptocurrencies were originally created to avoid banks and other middlemen, but now they embrace them for their newfound popularity among mainstream users.

Bankman-Fried also argues that payment cards are crucial to crypto’s growth into something more than just a speculative asset. He noted that the Visa partnership made it much easier for merchants to accept cryptocurrencies without having to set up their technical infrastructure, citing that Visa and FTX converted them behind the scenes.

According to both CEOs, emerging markets present the most enticing opportunity for investors of digital assets. Countries such as Turkey and Argentina were identified by Bankman-Fried as having rampant inflation rates of over 83% and 78%, respectively.

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