Visa will not directly accept bitcoin, according to company CEO Alfred Kelly in a recent CNBC interview during the National Retail Federation trade show in New York City.
“We at Visa won’t process transactions that are cryptocurrency-based,” he said. “We will only process fiat currency-based transactions.”
Kelly pointed to the problem posed by a currency like bitcoin with rapidly fluctuating value. “People want a fair exchange of value when they’re buying something, so if it costs $100, I want to pay $100,” he said.
If you are paying for something that is “bouncing around at the level bitcoin’s bouncing around, and think about ‘buy ahead’ kinds of transactions” – such as an airline ticket or a car – “If you’re using bitcoin, when is it valued?” he asked – when you buy it, when you use it?
Kelly said he currently views bitcoin as a speculative commodity as opposed to a method of payment.