thu 25 August 2022 ▪ 14:00 ▪
4
min reading – per
With a population of about 440 million, South America will never fail to attract investors. Brazil, which has 216 million, easily arrogates the title of “cash cow” in the eyes of financial heavyweights like Visa. This is why this payment card specialist wants to launch other very tempting offers in the country of Samba. Guess the relationship with bitcoin!
Visa, a card to pay and receive rewards in bitcoin
Brazil is the “B” in BRICS, this group of 5 countries classified as major emerging powers at the beginning of the 21ste century. No investor worthy of the name would want to miss out on such potential by accident. And Visa wants to seize the opportunity. To do this, it is partnering with the Latin American exchange Ripio to launch a prepaid debit card in cryptocurrencies.
What about the advantage of this new product? Support for payments in cryptocurrencies of course. This means that any holder of this card will be able to pay for goods and services throughout Brazil with the Real and the 28 crypto currencies listed by Ripio.
Icing on the cake, the CEO of Ripio pointed out that the use of this debit card will also authorize cashback bonuses in bitcoin. They are set at 5%.
At the moment, this Visa innovation exists only in digital version. But by the end of the year, about 250,000 physical cards will be spread throughout Brazil. Certainly to boost the adoption of the concept.
Another point to remember, the same card will also be launched in Argentina before the end of 2022. Other countries such as Colombia, Uruguay and Mexico will soon enjoy the same privilege.
An improvement of existing offers?
Visa is not at its first trial when it comes to launching “Bitcoin Cashback” cards in Brazil and other South American countries. Indeed, last June, the company has already issued crypto cards including cashback bonuses in the Carnival country and in Argentina.
At that time, the percentage of bonuses in bitcoins amounted to 2%. As a reminder, this reward is automatically assigned to any Visa card user with each payment made with the card.
For the launch of the first Bitcoin Cashback cards in Brazil, Visa had to call on banks such as Alterbank and Zro Bank. Warren Buffet’s Nubank, the anti-bitcoin who owns a bitcoin-friendly bank, has not yet been contacted by Visa.
The provision of the same offer for Argentines also required the support of the crypto exchanges Lemon Cash, Satoshi Tango and Crypto.com .
The journalists of Crypto News reported the comments of Romina Seltzer, the senior vice president of products and innovation of Visa Latin America and the Caribbean, on this topic :
« The cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to gain momentum in this region, with increased investment, greater consumer adoption, and more cryptocurrency-related use cases. We will continue to build on our strategy to develop the future of cryptocurrencies and payments for our customers, partners and consumers. »
At the pace things are going, the popularity of cryptocurrencies among Brazilians and Latin Americans will increase again and again. As long as the major economic and financial players innovate, in terms of products and/or services, people will overcome all the obstacles on the way to adopting these new assets.
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