Asia-Pacific crypto-fiat trading platform Zipmex has forged a strategic partnership with Visa in a bid to improve the convenience of its payment programs and products.
The platform's payment network ZipSend, designed to enable users to spend their crypto, will be integrated into Visa’s worldwide network of 70 million merchants. Following the partnership, Zipmex aims to release a Visa-branded payment card later this year.
Zipmex, which has compliant operations in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia, currently has a user base of over 200,000 and has reported over $1 billion in gross transaction volume since its launch in late 2019. The company has noted that any future payment product, such as a card, will still need to get the green light from the regulatory authorities in the relevant jurisdictions.
Zipmex CEO Marcus Lim said that the platform’s bid to become a crypto payment card issuer has placed it in a position “to provide support and guidance to help regulators pass effective digital asset legislation. This has been one of the more fulfilling aspects of this project.”
As reported, crypto exchange and payment service provider Crypto.com has also inked a global partnership with Visa and has rolled out its card in multiple regions, including in Asia-Pacific. In July, Visa announced that its crypto-enabled cards had processed more than $1 billion in total spending during the first half of 2021 alone.
With central bank digital currencies and private sector stablecoins drawing even more attention from a legal and geopolitical perspective, both Visa and its rival, Mastercard, have been vying to ensure their services remain at the center of the latest developments in the digital asset space.
Related: Mastercard and Visa Are Making Bold Moves Toward Mass Crypto Adoption
Visa’s CEO has this year argued that stablecoins’ blockchains could be thought of as payment rails similar to RPT or ACH networks. Mastercard has, for its part, announced recent partnerships with Circle, Paxos, Evolve Bank & Trust and others on a joint project to enable banks and crypto firms to roll out crypto cards that can be used anywhere that Mastercard is accepted.
The company has also recently announced a new startup engagement program as part of Mastercard Start Path to support fintech and companies working with digital assets, crypto and blockchain technology.
On the consumer front, Coinbase announced this week that users with a Visa or Mastercard debit card linked to Apple Pay can now purchase crypto assets on its platform, with Google Pay integration to follow.