Visa Enters Digital Wallets, Crypto, and the Metaverse with Patent Applications

Visa made news recently with its applications for two United States patents related to digital wallets, non-fungible tokens and the metaverse.

While it may come as a surprise to some, it is not uncommon for payment giants to file patent applications in these arenas. American Express has recently made a similar move.

Emmanuel Daniel, author of the The Great Transition: The Personalization of Finance is Here and founder of The Asian Banker, broke down why Visa made the move, and what challenges the firm faces going forward.

Emmanuel’s Thoughts:

“I’m just curious as to why there’s great interest in Visa getting into the crypto exchange and crypto wallets business. Crypto exchanges, there are about 500 around the world, maybe 600, Visa has had a good working relationship with at least about 80 of them. In fact, Visa played a very important role during the time when regulators were not allowing users to link their traditional fiat bank accounts to their crypto accounts.

I think that’s in decline now as more regulators around the world allow this to happen, which is allow users to link traditional bank accounts to crypto accounts. I think that visa is thinking that its brand offers a sense of assurance, especially today given the fact that a number of the bigger crypto exchanges are having the kind of problems that they are.

Visa’s real problem is its traditional credit card processing business. Honestly, that’s the business that is expensive, it’s slow, you know, and the margins are decreasing incredibly. Visa will do well to use some of the, you know, pioneering developments taking place in crypto and applying it to transform its traditional business.”