Cryptocurrencies are a volatile investment today, but card companies including Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are betting crypto will one day be used routinely for everyday purchases from food to clothes to plane tickets—and they don’t want to be left behind when that happens. Consumers now can make payments with cryptocurrencies linked to Visa and Mastercard cards provided mainly by fintech companies, but it’s a niche market. And transactions generally depend on third parties converting the crypto to local currencies. Visa and Mastercard—the largest card networks in the U.S.—say they are working on ways to handle the mechanics of crypto payments themselves. These efforts, if they succeed, would mark a major turning point—the first time that the decades-old networks would enable settling payments in assets beyond what most consider mainstream currencies. For now, the card networks largely view their efforts as geared toward banks, fintechs and other businesses they consider clients. But the moves could ultimately have a big impact on the way consumers and merchants make transactions. This could mean a future where it will be common to pay for sandwiches, clothing and other daily purchases by pulling out a card that’s funded by cryptocurrency, similar to the way debit cards are linked to checking accounts.
Read more : Cryptocurrency Is Coming to Your Credit Cards.
