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Visa to Adds Solana for Cross-Border Payments with ‘Multiple Blockchains’ and CBDCs to Follow

Payments giant Visa Inc (NYSE: V) will rely on multiple blockchains in the future. This is according to a blog post by the company’s Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield dated September 6. In the post, Sheffield also spoke on Visa’s new partnership with the Solana blockchain.

“We imagine a future where Visa’s network of networks involves more than just multiple currencies and bank settlement rails, but also multiple blockchain networks, stablecoins, and CBDCs or tokenized deposits. We expect traditional fiat and legacy settlement rails to co-exist with tokenized fiat running over global 24/7 real time blockchain networks for a long time. And we see our role as a bridge to meet our clients where they are regardless of preferred currency, settlement network, or form factor,” said he.

Drawing parallels with the early internet days, the executive noted that blockchain has been faced with “skeptics, hecklers and critics”. As a relatively nascent technology, blockchain has been faced with criticisms over its speed, ease of use, cost, and perceived lack of use cases. Sheffield counters that the internet faced similar opposition in its early, broadband days “and today, it’s fast enough to stream live video from space, cheap enough to be free in a lot of places, and easy enough for a six-year-old to use.”

Sheffield added that Visa sees great potential for blockchain technology, especially in global and cross-border payments. The payments company has been working to incorporate blockchain into its operations. In 2021, Visa began to test USDC payments on Ethereum as part of a partnership with Crypto.com. The latest step is an expansion of the USDC settlement pilot. The firm is working with Solana to provide a “modern, convenient option for fintech issuers and acquirers to help make and receive payments from Visa’s treasury accounts as well as opportunities for acquirers to get funds to their merchants faster.”

“Visa chose to add support for Solana as a high performance blockchain that its partners can choose to send or receive USDC settlement payments.” the press release said. “The Solana blockchain sees 400 millisecond block times, averages 400 transactions per second (TPS) and typically surges to more than 2K TPS1 across a variety of use cases during periods of peak demand.”

Following the announcement, the blockchain’s native SOL token soared in price and became the day’s highest gainer, rising by as much as 2.38% over 24 hours to reach $19.81. SOL is currently trading at $19.58, down 1.21% over 24 hours.

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Visa to Adds Solana for Cross-Border Payments with ‘Multiple Blockchains’ and CBDCs to Follow