Visa CEO Claims Cryptocurrencies Could Become “Extremely Mainstream”

During a conversation with Fortune CEO Alan Murray on the “Leadership Next” podcast, Visa CEO Al Kelly said that cryptocurrencies could become “extremely mainstream” in five years.

While not ruling out they could as well end up being a fad, Kelly wants to make sure that the global digital payments giant is “in the middle of it” today:        

The thing about our business that I actually like, Alan, is that we don’t pick winners and losers. You know, as you and I sit here and talk today, I don’t know to what degree cryptocurrencies are gonna take off. Are we gonna say in five years that it was a fad and it wasn’t a big deal? Or is it gonna be extremely mainstream? I’m not smart enough to know, but what I’m smart enough to do is make sure that our company is in the middle of it today.

The executive claimed that Visa is now all about money movements instead of solely focusing on payments: 

If it takes off and we can get our fair share or more of the volume because we anticipate that possibly could take off and become a big deal, we certainly wanna be prepared for that, and I think we are off to a very good start.

Bitcoin and stablecoins

Kelly divides cryptocurrencies into two buckets. Viewing Bitcoin as the digital successor of gold, he mentioned that Visa was working to enable its purchases and allow the flagship cryptocurrency’s seamless conversion into fiat:    

In that category, we are trying to do two things: enable the purchase of Bitcoin on VISA credentials. And, secondly, working with some Bitcoin wallets to allow Bitcoin to be translated into a fiat currency.

The Visa boss further predicts that the other category (fiat-backed digital currencies) could become a strong payment vehicle.

In December, Visa added the USD Coin stablecoin to its network, paving the way for USDC credit cards.

This article originally appeared on U. Today.