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VALR, the largest South African crypto exchange by trading volume, and Visa, the world’s largest card network, have announced a strategic partnership for the issuance of Visa cards and delivery of other digital payment solutions. Visa and VALR will collaborate on payment solutions that bring together the crypto expertise of VALR and the deep payments capabilities of Visa.
VALR recently obtained approval to offer crypto services in Europe and is in the process of obtaining licenses in Dubai, Mauritius and South Africa. The VALR-Visa partnership follows other Visa partnerships with leading global crypto asset service providers such as Coinbase, Crypto.com and Circle.
“Visa is a household name in payments, with vast experience and global reach. A partnership with Visa was a natural step for VALR as we bring more innovative products and services to our customer base. We are very excited to work with Visa to continue to bring the very best technology and services to our global audience.” said Farzam Ehsani, VALR Co-founder and CEO.
VALR is now the leading crypto exchange in Africa. The business processes the highest trading volume on the continent, provides innovative services such as VALR Pay, blockchain staking and spot margin trading, and will soon be launching a leading perpetual futures product. Visa started a crypto consulting service and invested in crypto platforms as part of a global push for digital currency adoption.
“Visa is excited to work with VALR to issue Visa credentials to VALR customers. With this partnership we will work on innovative payment and card products that empower VALR customers to utilise the Visa network to make and receive payments globally. The use cases are vast and we’re looking forward to the collaboration with VALR to provide customers with a unique value proposition,” says Lineshree Moodley, General Manager, Visa South Africa.
VALR, established in 2018, is a crypto exchange headquartered in South Africa that serves customers across the world. VALR has processed over $10 billion in trading volume and has raised $55 million in equity funding since launch. It offers its customers the ability to trade bitcoin and a wide range of other crypto assets at some of the lowest fees in the world. VALR now serves half a million retail customers and over 900 corporate and institutional clients globally.
Visa facilitates transactions for over 100 million merchants worldwide with the seamless and trusted issuance of Visa credentials, underscoring its global reach and influence in shaping the digital payment landscape. Visa has issued more than 3 billion card credentials worldwide and is capable of processing more than 65,000 transactions per second.
Over the past few years Visa has explored the benefits of the cryptocurrency industry, partnering with the leading players in the industry.
By Andrew Drake
