Visa Approves US Cryptocurrency Exchange Coinbase As Principal Member

The leading cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase, has been approved as the very first “pure-play” crypto-related company to become a Visa principal member. Supposedly, this would allow the exchange to further improve its customer experience.

Coinbase Becomes Visa Principal Member

According to an official release, the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange has managed to get approval for becoming a Visa principal member.

Supposedly, Coinbase is the first company in the cryptocurrency industry to achieve this membership.

“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 rich the cryptocurrency payment experience.” – Reads the announcement.

Indeed, this comes as important news because Visa is the world’s leading payment processor. The network services millions of people throughout the entire world, and Coinbase becoming an approve principal member does seem to be of significance.

Additional Expansion Of The Coinbase Card

As Cryptopotato reported earlier in 2019, the cryptocurrency exchange launched a Visa card in the United Kingdom. It allows its users to pay with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and other assets available on the exchange.

The Visa principal membership, in turn, will enable more features for Coinbase Card holders. Whether or not this is good for the industry, in general, is a different story.

Visa is one of the world’s largest and most established financial middlemen. The company serves as an intermediary between two parties who wish to transact. Naturally, when they are not at the same location, the physical transaction of cash is impossible. This is where Bitcoin and a lot of the other cryptocurrencies come, though.

Intended to serve as a peer-to-peer means of transaction, cryptocurrencies take out the intermediary out of the equation. Hence, it’s unclear whether the latest partnership between Visa and Coinbase is good for the further adoption of digital assets.