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Payment company Visa announced testing a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that will allow traditional bank customers to buy and sell digital assets such as bitcoin.
The first participant in the Visa Crypto API pilot project was First Boulevard, a digital bank focused on the African American community in the United States.
“The development of cryptocurrency APIs marks the next phase of Visa’s digital currency strategy to expand the company’s role as a network of networks,” the press release said.
According to product director Jack Forestell, the company decided to make the payment system “a bridge between digital currencies and its global network of 70 million merchants.”
The pilot is expected to launch later this year.
“As part of its initial testing and training phase, Visa will explore ways in which financial institutions that do not have their own digital currency infrastructure can use the company’s platform to access the growing world of cryptoassets and blockchain networks,” the payments giant noted.
Visa plans to connect First Boulevard to the digital asset custodian infrastructure of Anchorage, the company’s partner recently obtained a national bank license from the Office of the Comptroller of the Circulation (OCC) under the US Treasury.
First Boulevard will also issue a Visa debit card with access to digital assets. The online bank plans to include training in financial literacy in its platform – a payment company will take part in the creation of educational resources.
Earlier, Visa CEO Alfred Kelly said that the company plans to expand participation in the field of cryptocurrency payments through partnerships with wallet operators and exchanges.
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