Visa partners with FTX in a bet that shoppers still want to spend cryptocurrencies in a bear market

cnbc.com:

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Visa is betting that crypto investors still want to spend their digital currencies, even as prices plummet this year.

The payments giant is teaming up with global exchange FTX to offer debit cards in 40 countries with a focus on Latin America, Asia and Europe. The cards, which are already available in the U.S., will link directly to a user's FTX cryptocurrency investing account. The move allows customers to spend digital currencies without moving those off an exchange, «like you would with any bank account,» according to Visa's CFO.

«Even though values have come down there's still steady interest in crypto,» Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu told CNBC in a phone interview. «We don't have a position as a company on what the value of cryptocurrency should be, or whether it's a good thing in the long run — as long as people have things they want to buy, we want to facilitate it.»

The deal comes as the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been cut in half from their all time highs in November. Bitcoin was trading near $20,000 as of Friday morning, down 57% since January.

Its Visa's latest foray into the space and adds to more than 70 crypto partnerships. The San Francisco-based company has already joined forceswith FTX's competitors Coinbase and Binance. Rival Mastercard has been on a similar partnership spree, also partnering with Coinbase on NFTs and Bakkt to let banks and merchants in its network offer crypto-related services. American Express has said it's exploring using its cards and network with stablecoins, which are pegged to the price of a dollar. But the CEO said earlier this year that consumers should not expect to see an Amex-crypto-linked card "anytime soon."

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried