White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #100
FTX Partners With Payments Giant Visa to Offer Crypto Debit Cards
FTX Partners with Payments Giant Visa to Offer Crypto Debit Cards
White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter
Payment processing networks are continuing to accelerate their moves to facilitate cryptocurrency payments, with global payments giants Visa and Mastercard leading the way. Crypto exchange FTX recently unveiled it was partnering with Visa to produce a feeless debit card.
Why is this significant?
Crypto-linked cards are a significant step for bringing crypto to the next billion users. It makes it easier for consumers to convert and spend digital currencies without requiring merchants like grocers, butchers, coffee shops, etc., to directly accept cryptocurrency at the point of sale. The increasing embrace of cryptocurrencies by banks and payment firms benefits crypto’s market growth besides being a store of value or a speculative asset. Visa and Mastercard, with market caps of $372bn and $277bn respectively, have been making significant advances in this space, with this FTX partnership just being the latest of many.
Visa x FTX
FTX will work with Visa to produce a reportedly feeless debit card. Available in 40 countries, including many in Latin America, it will offer Bitcoin and Ripple (XRP) to millions of users. The card is to be directly linked with the holder’s FTX investing account, enabling users to conduct transactions with the conversions from crypto to fiat occurring instantaneously.
Emerging markets provide the biggest opportunity in the space, as inflationary domestic monetary policy and currency volatility make digital assets more attractive. Argentina and Turkey, for example, have high adoption rates as their inflation rates have hit 78% and 83% respectively.
Visa’s partnership with FTX is just the latest in a string of over 65 partnerships with leading crypto platforms, including Binance, Blockfi, and Crypto.com. These partnerships enable it to serve as a bridge, connecting the crypto ecosystem with their global network of 80 million merchant locations and 15,000 financial institutions.
This is a demand-driven development, as we witness increasing numbers of consumers demand access to crypto liquidity to fund purchases and manage expenses seamlessly and instantaneously. During its recent earnings call, Visa said that customers made $2.5bn in payments with crypto-linked cards in Q12022, which equates to about 70% of the company’s total 2021 crypto volume.
“Looking at the broad categories of spend, we don’t see the volume concentrated in a specific merchant vertical with these programs. People are using their crypto-linked cards to spend in a variety of ways — retail goods and services, restaurants, travel. They’re increasingly being treated like a general purpose account,” Visa CFO, Vasant Prabhu, told CNBC.
Card Landscape
Mastercard, Visa’s biggest competitor, is not holding off either. In the past year, Mastercard has partnered with Coinbase to ease payment transactions on its NFT marketplace, and Bakkt to allow banks and small business owners in the Bakkt network to provide crypto services. It also developed the ‘Binance Card’ for South America. American Express, meanwhile, is developing a way to link stablecoins, which are pegged to the price of a dollar or another fiat currency, with its cards and network. We don’t expect this space to die down any time soon…
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Portuguese platform Exclusible to sell land in Madeira’s ‘digital twin’
In a statement, Exclusible announces that it will start selling parts of Madalia World digital world, which attempts to accurately represent not only the size of Madeira, but also some of the real places on the island.
Atlendis labs announces the opening of a borrower pool for parallel capital
Atlendis welcomes AA institutional borrower Parallel Capital, a delta-neutral high-frequency market maker.
ParaSwap plots reduced token emissions with new social escrow system
The social escrow system will reward users for performing actions deemed beneficial to the ParaSwap protocol.
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
Ernst & Young Wants to Be 'The Best on Earth at Ethereum' Says Firm's Blockchain Lead
Ernst & Young's global blockchain leader Paul Brody said that the company is "all-in" on public blockchains, particularly Ethereum.
Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile Parent, Launches Ethereum Validator
“DT’s subsidiary, T-Systems MMS provides the Ethereum Network with infrastructure in the form of validation nodes,” the release reads.
Illuvium co-founder shares plans for new ‘interoperable blockchain game’ model
Illuvium’s co-founder says they want to build a series of blockchain games connected to each other, forming an ecosystem of interconnected titles that share NFTs.
US users can cross-post digital assets between Facebook and Instagram
Meta's move adds functionality and visibility of digital assets across two of the most popular social media platform.
BlackRock launches ETF in Europe with blockchain and crypto company exposure
BlackRock made its latest crypto play on Thursday when it launched an ETF with exposure to blockchain and crypto companies for its European customers.
Google Cloud to Let Users Pay With Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin via Coinbase
Google will let a "handful" of customers pay for its cloud services using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum via Coinbase Commerce.
BNY Mellon Launches Bitcoin, Ethereum Custody Services for Investment Firms
The BNY Mellon crypto custody service means the bank will store clients' private keys and provide bookkeeping on their BTC and ETH.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Crypto.com Receives Regulatory Approval in France
Crypto.com registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider by the
Autorité des marchés financiers.
EU policymakers vote to modernize tax with blockchain technology
The European Parliament voted, with an overwhelming majority, in favor of a file to use blockchain technology to modernize taxation processes in the European Union.
Crypto exchange Coinbase gets license in Singapore
The crypto exchange operator plans to expand in Asia, focusing on serving institutions.
EU Lawmakers Pass Landmark Crypto Assets Regulation Bill
The Markets in Crypto Assets regulation bill (MiCA) is one step closer to being put into law.
💰 Funding & Exits
Telefónica Invests in Crypto Exchange, Launches Payments Pilot
Spain’s largest telecom company Telefónica has led a key investment round in the country's largest crypto exchange Bit2Me.
Crypto and digital bank MinePlex secures $100M in funding from GEM
The funding will be used in new banking technologies, including a collaboration with Mastercard and Visa for crypto transactions.
Brevan Howard and Morgan Creek lead web3 gaming startup's $40 million Series A
The digital asset divisions of investment firms Brevan Howard and Morgan Creek have led a $40 million round into web3 gaming startup Horizon Blockchain Games.
Decentralized music platform Stems raises $4 million pre-seed round
Stem’s funding round was led by Ideo CoLab, with additional participation from Merit Circle and Yield Guild Games, among others.
Crypto Banking Platform Juno Raises $18M in Series A Funding
Alongside the fresh capital, the company will be introducing its loyalty token, JCOIN.
Crypto Venture-Capital Firm Paradigm Leads $14M Funding Round for DeFi Platform Exponential
The tool helps users assess risks in decentralized finance and compare investments.
Thirdwave Launches Out of Stealth with $7M Seed Round Led by Framework Ventures
The blockchain analytics and insights platform provide web3 companies with on-chain data including customer data, social channel information, website analytics, and industry benchmarks.
Step secures $300 million in debt funding, launches crypto investment service
Step said it will expand into crypto investment services, and launched a financial literacy program to improve consumer education on banking and crypto.
Crypto Lending Platform Moon Mortgage Raises $3.5M Seed Round
The platform will allow investors to use their crypto as collateral for financing real estate investments.
Sovryn Raises $5.4 Million, Led by General Catalyst
The raise comes ahead of the public launch of Sovryn’s Zero protocol.
Scale3 Labs Raises $5.3M in Seed Funding
The round was led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Mysten Labs and Howard University.
Tribo raises $1.17M for Web3 multiplayer games
The team is working on a casual free-to-play multiplayer game to be revealed at a later date.
Resy co-founder Ben Leventhal raises $11 million for new web3 hospitality platform
Web3 hospitality platform Blackbird has raised $11 million in a seed round, co-led by Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital and Multicoin Capital.
NFL superstars back Coolkicks founder's $6 million raise for collectible trading platform
The team behind sneaker chain Coolkicks are moving into the web3 space with a new trading platform called MynaSwap.
Citi Ventures co-leads $6 million round in crypto investment startup Xalts
Xalts is building investment products to remove barriers that inhibit institutions from accessing the digital asset class in a secure and compliant manner.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
NYDIG, Under New Management, Bets Another $720M on Bitcoin
NYDIG (New York Digital Investment Group) has raised $720 million for its Institutional Bitcoin Fund, as revealed in an SEC filing published last week.
Polygon launches testnet for Layer 2 network Hermez
DeFi protocols Aave and Uniswap will be launching on its testnet.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
Crypto Loans Are Booming in Latin America Amid Runaway Bank Rates and Inflation
The traditional banking system and economic instability are making it difficult for Latin Americans to get credit, but crypto lending is thriving across the region.
Web3 beyond the hype
Digital assets and the technologies underlying them still have the potential to transform business models across sectors.