The world’s largest digital asset Bitcoin surged as high as $58,000 on Monday after Visa announced that it will allow bitcoin to settle transactions on its network. Bitcoin was trading at 57,662.70 at 11.52 AM EST after swinging from the $54,727-$58,230 range. The digital asset is just 5% shy from achieving its lifetime high of $61,711.87.

The recent development of Visa announcing it will allow bitcoin on its network comes after several financial outlets have already joined the crypto bandwagon. Prior to Visa’s announcement Mastercard, Bank of New York Mellon had also announced it will be accepting bitcoin on their network. Tesla Chief Elon Musk, who has for the longest time been bullish on bitcoin, had announced that Tesla will be accepting bitcoin as a mode of payment. This has led to a wide speculation among companies that bitcoin is sure to become part of investment portfolios for many other companies in the coming times.

Shifting our focus back to the Visa development, Cuy Sheffield, who heads the crypto division at Visa said, “We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers.”

Visa has struck deal with crypto platform Crypto.com for the pilot project and plans to offer the option of settling transactions with bitcoin to more partners in the coming future.

All about the Visa and Crypto.com’s partnership

Prior to Visa’s partnership with crypto.com, whenever a customer chose to use a crypto.com Visa to make a transaction, bitcoin had to be first converted into the traditional fiat currency. The crypto wallet deposited the fiat currency into a traditional bank account, then it used to wire the amount to Visa at end of the day for transaction settlement. Not only was this process more time consuming, it also used to increase business costs.

Visa’s new plan will be carried on the ethereum blockchain. This means that the company doesn’t need to convert bitcoin into the traditional fiat currency first to settle transactions. Visa announced that it has struck a deal with Anchorage, a bank specializing in digital assets, which will help with the first transaction that involve USD coin with the use of Crypto.com to send the bitcoin to Visa’s ethereum account.

Also read: Ethereum in Top 100 Assets in the world : What is Ethereum, Why is it rising?

According to Anchorage President Diogo Monica, the deal was in making since 2019 as Visa came to Anchorage with the increasingly needed idea of making secure and seamless payment settlements made possible in digital currency like bitcoin. Visa wanted to give the crypto users an option to directly settle with Visa in bitcoin over a public blockchain.

Coinbase to establish base in India

Meanwhile in India, new developments in the cryptocurrency came in the form of news which said that Coinbase will be establishing its presence in India and even plans to open a physical office in Hyderabad. The move is an interesting one as India’s government is still unclear on the status of the cryptocurrency.

‘’India has long been known as a hub for engineering and technology innovation, and we look forward to finding that world-class talent to help the Coinbase group develop new ways for our customers to interact with the cryptoeconomy’’, the company said in one of its blog posts.

Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange that was founded in 2012 as a platform for crypto users to trade in several cryptocurrencies which include the usual suspects like bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin amongst others. The platform has over 43 million users across the world and had clocked in crypto based transactions worth $68 billion in 2020.

Another interesting and somewhat positive development for cryptocurrency’s state in India came in the form of the Indian government asking Indian companies to disclose dealings in cryptocurrency in their balance sheets. The move by Ministry of Corporate Affairs was lauded by crypto bulls in the country.

Rahul Pagidipati, CEO of ZebPay issued a statement in which he said, “We see this new amendment as a welcome step towards positive regulations. Not only will it give investors and savers more confidence to buy bitcoin and other assets, it will also promote job creation. With this additional point of clarity, Indian blockchain entrepreneurs in different sectors such as healthcare and agriculture will be better able to attract investors and venture capitalists.”