Alfred Kelly, the chief executive officer of Visa, does not consider bitcoin as a payment system. According to him, the largest world’s largest cryptocurrency is just a speculative commodity.
He made the statement during the National Retail Federation conference in New York City, which was recorded by CNBC. Kelly’s comment also comes as bitcoin suffered a massive sell-off on Wednesday. The largest cryptocurrency lost nearly 50% from its all-time high last month.
Kelly said, “My take is that bitcoin is much more today a commodity. Honestly…a speculative commodity that people could invest in. I don’t view it as payment system player.”
“In fact, we at Visa won’t process transactions that are cryptocurrency-based. We will only process fiat currency-based transactions,” added Kelly.
According to Investopedia, a fiat money is a currency declared by a government to be a legal tendency. However, it is not supported by physical commodity. The U.S. dollar, the euro and all the other major currencies worldwide are considered fiat money.
Bitcoin is not supported by any government
On the other hand, bitcoin was created by a person known under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. In his paper, Nakamoto explained that bitcoin is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. It does need to go through a financial institution since it is not supported by any government.
