Through Gnosis’ decentralized network, Gnosis Pay allows entities to provide an on-chain spending account linked to a Visa debit card that can be used at Visa accepting merchant locations worldwide. For Gnosis Pay’s consumer offering, this partnership translates into a more seamless experience; digital currencies can now be used for everyday transactions with ease, helping to eliminate inefficiencies and offering a more agile experience for users. In February 2024, Gnosis Pay shipped its first batch of Gnosis Cards to users across Europe. Today’s partnership sees Gnosis Pay establish an additional and direct link with Visa to help accelerate the growth of the programme.

For business partners, the impact is twofold. Traditional finance entities get an opportunity to delve into the blockchain realm, offering their customers new solutions that blend the reliability of traditional systems with the efficiency of blockchain technology. On the other hand, Web3 and blockchain companies can leverage this partnership to bring their offerings into everyday transactions, making their services more relevant and accessible to a broader audience.

Marcos Nunes, CEO of Gnosis Pay, commented: “With global crypto users predicted to reach one billion in 2024, Gnosis Pay is increasing optionality for both service providers and card holders, giving them the chance to pay, their way. This new partnership with Visa brings us a step closer to achieving our goal of building the next generation of banking by creating an efficient, cost-effective global payments system that provides payment optionality for all.

A key element of the Gnosis Pay crypto-linked Visa card is the ability to utilize blockchain technology to aid and enhance compliance practices, significantly helping to improve the monitoring of fund sources and transaction paths. Blockchain technology, exemplified by Gnosis Chain, provides transparency that makes digital payments more efficient. It enables precise tracking of the origin of funds and their movement across different addresses, further bolstering anti-money laundering efforts while enhancing overall financial security and compliance.

The new relationship unveiled today between Gnosis Pay and Visa opens up new opportunities for expanded offerings and innovative use cases. Gnosis Pay can enable instant access to cash after a payment is made, which has the potential to improve costs in the backend systems, one example being the cost of collateral. In this manner, Gnosis Pay customers can benefit from the global acceptance of fiat currency while retaining the trust and convenience that digital money brings, with Gnosis Pay and Gnosis Chain acting as the respective bridge and the orchestrator to enable this seamless transfer.

Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, commented: “Our longstanding strategy and focus in crypto is to serve as a bridge, helping connect both platforms and new technologies emerging in the crypto ecosystem to develop the next generation of payment solutions. We look forward to continuing our work with Gnosis Pay.”

The partnership will initially focus on the UK and EEA markets, with plans for rapid global expansion, leveraging the UK and EEA as strategic launch points.