Hey friend,

You probably never thought of Visa as a tech company, but depending on who you ask, it is.

Visa is not a credit card company. It runs the payment network behind the cards.

Blockchain was built to destroy that network, and Visa embraced it anyway.

Truthfully, it's one of the smartest moves I've seen a company make in a long time.

Visa doesn’t issue credit cards. Banks do.

Visa just owns the network that connects your bank to the store’s bank.

Here’s how it works:
When you use your credit card, the store has to verify your identity, that you have enough money in your account, etc.

Visa’s network is what banks use to communicate.

Your bank responds to the store by approving or declining your transaction, and Visa carries that response back through its network. It’s like playing telephone.

Visa built one of the largest payment networks on the planet by becoming the middleman between businesses, customers, and banks.

But moving the actual money is more complicated. It involves strict rules about when and how the money can be moved, depending on where it’s going.

Imagine how hard it can be for businesses to move large amounts of money across countries.

Blockchain came along with a completely different idea. Cut out the middleman.

Blockchain lets two people send money directly to one another without banks controlling when the money can be moved or where it can go.

How’d they do it?

Blockchain replaced banks with computer systems that handle the complicated math instantly and run 24/7.

Bitcoin was the first digital currency to help prove that blockchain could work.

But putting actual dollars on the blockchain required more ingenuity.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that use blockchain technology but hold the value of a traditional currency.

For example, $1 of USDC should always be worth $1 USD.

And that could eventually destroy Visa, because as cryptocurrency becomes more widespread, there's less need for traditional middlemen and payment infrastructure.

So, instead of fighting all this technology, Visa decided to join them.

Now, Visa lets banks use stablecoins to move payments across blockchain networks.

Business is booming. Visa’s stablecoin program just reached a $7 billion annual run rate. Then, they took it one step further.

It built a platform for banks to create, hold, move, and cash out their own stablecoins.

Basically, Visa found a way to keep being the middleman.

This move tells us Visa cares less about protecting the traditional tech that made it successful and cares more about protecting its role in the financial system.

If money keeps moving through traditional payment networks, Visa gets paid.

If trillions of dollars start moving through blockchain, Visa gets paid.

In my opinion, it’s one of the wisest moves I’ve seen in a while.

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