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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.

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Bitcoin's Market Cap Surges Past These Payment Behemoths 2

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.

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Visa is Bringing Auto-payments With Cryptocurrency Wallets 4

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.

Related Reading | Shiba Inu: Yet another tease for the “most complex card game”

Payment Firms Bow Out Of Russia Amidst Calls For Financial Isolation

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Under public pressure to cease operations in Russia, several major firms have announced to shut down their services. The latest to join the list is the payment processor Mastercard. According to the press release, the payment giant has decided to discontinue transactions in the nation citing the “unprecedented nature of the current conflict and the uncertain economic environment.

Besides blocking some Russian financial institutions, the firm said it will end support for any cards issued by its banks and block transactions from cards issued outside the country but used “at its merchants or ATMs.”

Both Visa and PayPal have also taken steps to suspend operations in the country, the companies announced on Saturday, referring to the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Visa according to a press statement said it has begun working to discontinue transactions in the country, but it will take a few days.

In the press release, Visa Inc. Chairman and CEO Al Kelly said that the company “was compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed.” Similarly, representatives for PayPal reportedly told Reuters the shutdown would still “ensure that account balances are dispersed in line with applicable laws.”

In response to that, Russia’s central bank said in a statement that Visa and Mastercard cards would continue to work within its territory even after the credit card processors announced their withdrawals.

Can crypto be Russia’s passage out?

Russia faces an impending financial collapse as the tougher penalties tighten the noose on its economy. On 2nd March, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that the country’s growing isolation has put a strain on its already frail financial system.

With Russia largely blocked from the U.S. dollar-based global financial system, there was a general assumption that crypto might offer an escape route. But with several nations such as Singapore, Japan, and most recently Switzerland announcing to freeze crypto assets and on top of that Ruble plummeting down, things don’t look good as of now.

However, attempts to legalize and regulate cryptocurrencies in Russia are going on as an expert council supporting the crypto regulatory, is scheduled to review new legislation, this weekend.

Visa and Mastercard Blocks Russian Banks From Their Payment Network

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Visa Inc (V.N.) and Mastercard Inc, both based in the United States, have barred various Russian financial institutions from their networks to comply with federal sanctions implemented in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Visa announced on Monday that it would take immediate measures to guarantee compliance with appropriate penalties, as well as a $2 million donation to humanitarian relief. Mastercard has also pledged a $2 million donation.

In a subsequent statement issued late Monday, Mastercard stated, “We will continue to engage with regulators in the days ahead to comply with our compliance requirements as they evolve properly.”

In 2021, commerce performed inside, into, and out of Russia accounted for around 4% of Mastercard’s net sales. Meanwhile, according to a disclosure on Tuesday, commerce performed inside, into, and out of Ukraine amounted to 2% of its net sales.

The government penalties compel Visa to suspend access to its network for businesses identified as Specially Designated Nationals. The U.S. has added several Russian financial institutions to the list, including the country’s central bank and the country’s second-largest lender, VTB (VTBR.MM).

Russians deeply affected by Putin’s decision

The United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Canada imposed further sanctions against Russia on Saturday, including denying some lenders access to the SWIFT international payment system.

On Sunday and Monday, people of Russia hurried to ATMs and queued for hours, fearful that their bank cards might stop working or that banks would limit cash withdrawals.

Many Western banks, airlines, and other businesses have severed connections with Russia, citing the country’s irresponsible acts. Russian planes have been barred from entering European and Canadian airspace.

Russian ruble plummets

The ruble’s value has plummeted as a result of the broad sanctions. In Russia, citizens have also had to wait in enormous queues to withdraw money from ATMs.

In the meantime, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, has asked major cryptocurrency exchanges to restrict Russian customers’ addresses.

Because cryptocurrencies are not owned or managed by a single organization like a central bank, they might provide a vehicle for Russians to potentially avoid sanctions and move their money out of the country.

Binance, the world’s largest exchange, has said that it will ban the accounts of sanctioned Russians but that it will not “unilaterally” freeze the accounts of all Russian users.

Visa confirms partnership with 65 exchanges: over 100 million vendors accept crypto

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As per the reports by Visa CEO Al Kelly, the company revealed some data showing its outstanding record of crypto payments and developments. More than 65 crypto platforms and exchanges, including Coinbase and BlockFi, have joined in issuing Visa credentials. They claimed that more than 100 million retailers in the Visa network are now accepting crypto payments. They stated that crypto-linked card use hit $2.5 billion in the first fiscal quarter, “which is already 70 percent of the payments volume for all of fiscal 2021.” In its earnings release statement, the company mentioned that there were 47.6 billion transactions that were carried out for the three months ending December 31, which is a 21% increase over the prior year.

“Visa delivered very strong results with revenue, net income and EPS all growing at 24% or higher.”

Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Visa Inc

Kelly highlighted that Visa continues to “lean into the crypto space” and enhance areas such as connectivity, scale, customer value propositions, dependability and security for crypto products to grow steadily.

Visa’s support and initiatives for crypto

Visa continues to expand its support towards crypto. Since last year, they have gradually started adding a framework and showing their achievements in the sector. They had also announced to roll out a credit card that rewards Bitcoin to its users in collaboration with BlockFi. Visa never missed showing their continuous support on Twitter. They recently tweeted that almost three-quarters of businesses worldwide reported that it’s fundamental to accept new forms of payments.

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In December, Visa created a worldwide crypto advisory practice to help financial institutions build their cryptocurrency operations as demand for crypto surges.

Visa’s ongoing initiative to make crypto a global recognition will never go vain. Being a world leader in digital payments, enabling transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government bodies across more than 200 nations and territories each year. Their purpose is to link the globe with the most creative, convenient, dependable and secure payments network, allowing individuals, businesses and economies to prosper.

Crypto is still in its early stages of adoption. In the growing years, almost every enterprise and business will accept crypto. One after the other, different countries are also showing their extended support towards crypto.

Visa Is The Latest Platform To Steer Towards The Crypto Industry

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After Paypal, Visa seems to be jumping onto the crypto bandwagon.

It took a lot for the crypto industry to shun off its association with the dark net. With the value of the overall industry surging to a high of a trillion dollars, several mainstream companies have been getting into the crypto-verse. Paypal recently won the hearts of several crypto lovers by adding support to an array of digital assets. While that further insinuated a crypto rally, Visa’s CEO recently revealed that Visa could be following the trail of Paypal and adding support for certain assets.

The CEO of Visa, Alfred Kelly recently addressed the fiscal Q1 2021 earnings call of Visa. In the same, Kelly spoke about the crypto industry. He went on to reveal that cryptocurrencies were going to make a debut on the payments platform.

While Visa has already been supporting an array of crypto platforms, Kelly suggested that the payments giant hopes to make cryptocurrencies safer to use. He added,

“In this space, we see ways that we can add differentiated value to the ecosystem. And we believe that we are uniquely positioned to help make cryptocurrencies more safe, useful and applicable for payments through our global presence, our partnership approach and our trusted brand.”

Previously, the payments platform had partnered with Facebook for its crypto venture, Libra [now renamed as Diem]. However, Visa backed out as the regulatory pressure around the project prevailed. Kelly further pointed out that digital assets would have a strong presence in global financial scene. “We think of digital currencies running on public blockchains as additional networks just like RTP or ACH networks, so we see them as part of our network of networks strategy,” Kelly suggested.

Furthermore, Kelly affirmed that cryptocurrencies would eventually make it to the Visa network as it already supports over 160 fiat currencies. He said,

“It goes without saying, to the extent a specific digital currency becomes a recognized means of exchange, there’s no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies today.”

Bitcoin Briefly Transcends Alibaba After Skyrocketing Above $34k

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Bitcoin underwent a correction to $30,215 shortly after smashing a fresh all-time high on the 12th anniversary of its network being created. With this, the world’s premier crypto-asset went on to break several other records as well. One of the most prominent ones has to be Bitcoin surpassing Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba.

According to AssetDash’s chart for ‘Top Assets by Market Cap’, the leading cryptocurrency briefly crossed Alibaba to score the top 8th position on the ladder. During this short-lived tryst, the cryptocurrency went on to challenge the US electric vehicle giant, Tesla which was seated at the 7th position.

As Bitcoin broke $30k, Jim Bianco, popular macro strategist, tweeted,

“*BITCOIN EXTENDS RALLY TO TOP $30,000 FOR THE FIRST TIME. Bitcoin first passed $20,000 on December 16, and $25,000 on December 26. Now over $31,000 50+% gain in less than 16 days! Bitcoin makes TSLA look like it is standing still.”

Having quadrupled in terms of its price during 2020, the crypto began 2021 with a bang as it breached through the $30,000 mark for the first time ever, in fact, in less than three weeks ago to be specific, after first trading above $20,000. Just four days into 2021 and BTC has already exhibited an extension of its mainstream recognition, which might be held as a guarantee for a long-term bullish trend.

The latest pullback of more than 12% over the past day, from a market cap of over $636 billion to the current $563 billion drove the cryptocurrency to the 10th position. However, it continued to rank well above the financial service giants such as Visa and Mastercard.

Will Bitcoin be able to resume this?

It is very likely that Bitcoin could be, in the coming days, will be able to take over Alibaba once more. The very reason why it seems plausible is that more and more anxious institutions and corporations are on a buying spree of more and more BTC. Hence, the scenario for not just BTC but also the collective crypto market cap is getting more bullish by the second. It is not just the high-net individuals that have played their part, the retail FOMO was also important in this rally.

It is not just Bitcoin that reigns in the charts..

Apart from Bitcoin, the only other cryptocurrency that was found among the top 100 assets by market cap was Ethereum. Thanks to its overwhelming rally of 15% over the past 24-hours, the altcoin made it to 93rd position just above the British multinational investment bank and financial services holding company, HSBC Holdings.