The CEO of Visa (NYSE: V), Al Kelly, has said that the payments giant is in a position to make cryptocurrencies more “safe, useful and applicable,” and could even add them to its payments network.

Kelly’s words came during the company’s fiscal first-quarter 2021 earnings call, as CoinDesk reports. During the call, he separated cryptocurrencies into two categories: digital currencies and stablecoins. The former, he said, the firm sees as “digital gold,” as they are “ predominantly held as assets that are not used as a form of payment in a significant way at this point.”

He added:

Our strategy here is to work with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase these currencies using their Visa credentials or to cash out onto our Visa credential to make a fiat purchase at any of the 70 million merchants where Visa is accepted globally.

Addressing stablecoins, the CEO of Visa said that these are an “emerging payments innovation that could have the potential to be used for global commerce,” as fiat currencies are. He added Visaq sees these currencies on public blockchains as “as additional networks just like RTP or ACH networks, so we see them as part of our network of networks strategy.”

He added that 35 of the leading digital currency platforms and wallets – including Crypto.com and BlockFi – have chosen to issue Visa and represent “the potential for more than 50 million Visa credentials.” Kelly added that as a specific cryptoasset becomes more recognized as a means of exchange “there’s no reason why we cannot add it to our network.”

In September of last year Terry Angelos, Visa’s global fintech lead, revealed in an interview that cryptocurrency companies have been showing “significant interest” in working with the world’s largest payments processor. In a bid to connect their clients to its network.

In December, CryptoGlobe reported Visa was connecting its payments network to Circle’s Ethereum-powered USDC stablecoin so card issuers would be able to send and receive payments in USDC.

Featured image via Pixabay.