Quantoz Payments, a Dutch payments company, has been approved as a principal Visa member, allowing it to issue stablecoin-linked virtual cards in Europe, Cointelegraph reported on Feb. 17 local time.
Quantoz will launch Visa virtual cards based on USDQ, EURQ and EURD tokens, supporting users in paying directly with stablecoins online, offline and through mobile wallets.
Quantoz also helps fintech companies issue their own payment cards using the Visa brand. Quantoz, which holds an electronic money institution licence from the Netherlands central bank, issues tokens as regulated electronic money within the European Economic Area (EEA) and must maintain 1:1 reserves through a bankruptcy-remote structure while also securing an additional 2 percent reserve.
Visa and Quantoz did not disclose the schedule for launching the card programme or the fintech companies participating, but the cooperation is centred on the European market. Visa has recently expanded stablecoin payments including USDG, PYUSD and EURC, and has strengthened stablecoin payment infrastructure by integrating with the Stellar and Avalanche blockchains to build an instant payment system.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr