Having first partnered up to launch the Coinbase Card in 2019, Coinbase and Visa have now taken the next step in their relationship.
Visa has made the cryptocurrency company a Visa principal member. Coinbase stated that the deepened partnership will enable it to make it easier for people to spend cryptocurrencies in everyday situations.
“Following the success of Coinbase Card, we are proud to be the first company in the crypto ecosystem to be granted Visa principal membership,” Coinbase wrote in a statement. “This membership will enable us to offer more features for Coinbase Card customers; from additional services to support in more markets – all elements that will help to evolve and enrich the cryptocurrency payment experience.
“Today’s announcement is another significant milestone in the mainstream adoption of crypto as a genuine utility. We will continue to build on this relationship with further initiatives which make interacting with crypto as seamless as possible for our customers.”
TechCrunch suggested that one of the key benefits of the partnership is that it will enable Coinbase to be less dependent on Paysafe, which it worked with to launch Coinbase Card.
Coinbase has gone from strength to strength since the launch in 2012. The company raised a $300m Series E round in 2018, valuating the company at $8bn.
Coinbase acquired Xapo, the secure bitcoin storage startup, in August 2019 .
Yet, it has had its fair share of setbacks. For instance, Barclays ended its relationship with the cryptocurrency exchange in August. This meant that Coinbase’s customers could no longer instantly deposit and withdraw British pounds at the exchange.
However, Coinbase did not stay out of the UK for long. It was back just a few weeks later thanks to a partnership with ClearBank.
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