Reuters had reported that the credit card giant was abandoning plans to collaborate with digital asset firms in the wake of BlockFi, Voyager, Celsius and FTX going under.
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Visa has denied reports that it's planning to slam the brakes on partnerships with crypto firms following a slew of devastating bankruptcies.
Reuters had reported that the credit card giant was abandoning plans to collaborate with digital asset firms in the wake of BlockFi, Voyager, Celsius and FTX going under.
Sources told the news outlet that Visa's crypto ambitions were being put on ice until the regulatory landscape improved, as well as market conditions.
And a quote from a Visa spokesperson added:
"Recent high-profile failures in the crypto sector are an important reminder that we have a long way to go before crypto becomes a part of mainstream payments and financial services."
While all of this would seem like a dramatic U-turn, Visa's head of crypto argued that the story was "inaccurate" on Twitter.
Cuy Sheffield said that partnerships were ongoing to improve fiat on-ramps and off-ramps — an industry term used to describe cash being converted into crypto, or converted back.
He added that Visa was determined "to build new products that can facilitate stablecoin payments in a secure, compliant and convenient way." Sheffield wrote:
"Despite the challenges and uncertainty in the crypto ecosystem, our view has not changed that fiat-backed digital currencies running on public blockchains have the potential to play an important role in the payments ecosystem."
And he stressed that downturns are "the time to build."
Visa ended up being caught up in the FTX debacle and immediately moved to sever credit card agreements with the embattled exchange after it tipped into bankruptcy last November.
At the time, a spokesman said the situation involving Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange — which allegedly misused billions of dollars in customer funds — was "unfortunate."
That came weeks after FTX and Visa had unveiled plans to rollout account-linked Visa debit cards in over 40 nations.
While Visa might not be "slamming the brakes" on crypto partnerships, it's certainly going to be a lot more selective about who it does business with.
