- Visa (NYSE:V) group manager said that crypto transactions are up in the Middle East.
- During Visa’s fiscal first quarter of 2022, customers made $2.5 billion in payments with crypto-linked cards.
- Visa has partnered with more than 65 crypto-enabled exchanges, including Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and BlockFi.
The use of crypto-linked credit cards has subsequently increased across the globe, with Visa reporting around $3.5 billion in crypto transactions in 2021. Similarly increase in crypto investments and transactions has been observed in the Middle East recently.
According to Leila Serhan, senior vice president and group country manager for Visa in North Africa, the Levant, and Pakistan (NALP), cryptocurrency is gaining popularity as a digital payment method globally, with the Middle East embracing it more recently. A recent interview she gave to Jordan Times outlined her thoughts on the topic.
Serhan said that crypto remains a strong vehicle and added:
Crypto is a trend that we cannot ignore. There are around 400 million people who have purchased crypto around the world, and at Visa, we look at ourselves as a network of networks, and crypto networks are definitely one of the networks where we want to facilitate the exchange of money
Over 65 crypto-enabled exchanges have partnered with Visa already. According to Serhan, if a country’s regulations allow it, the company will facilitate cryptocurrency transactions in order to promote it further.
Serhan concluded that digital payments are crucial to increasing financial inclusion among small and medium businesses in the Middle East.
Visa recently revealed in the recent earning call that in the first quarter of 2022, customers used crypto-linked cards to make payments worth $2.5 billion. According to a CNBC report citing Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu, this figure represents 70% of the company’s crypto volume for fiscal year (FY) 2021.
The importance of digital financial literacy in preventing attacks from fraudsters cannot be overstated. In order to combat this issue, Visa has launched several initiatives to educate users about digital financial literacy and e-commerce safety.
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