Visa payment system acquired fintech startup Plaid for $5.3 billion, working with the Coinbase crypto exchange and the Abra wallet.
Related: MasterCard and Visa are leaving Facebook’s Libra project
The deal will allow Visa to provide users with advanced payment options and related services for fintech developers.
Visa's Executive Director and Chairman Al Kelly said the acquisition is a natural evolution of Visa's 60-year journey from creating a safe and reliable connection between buyers and sellers to providing consumers with access to digital financial services.
Previously, the Plaid startup introduced a network, which allows users to link various accounts and connect them to applications.
The transaction is expected to be completed within 3-6 months.
In November 2019, Visa announced plans to create a blockchain system for processing personal data. Then the experts noted that the initiative threatens the market positions of the Plaid aggregator.
The exact relationship of Visa to cryptocurrencies and blockchain is still not clear. For example, in October 2019, Visa and Mastercard decided to leave the Libra project from Facebook, when Two Senate Democrats warned them to review their membership.