Visa ends global debit card partnership with bankrupt crypto exchange FTX

Following the collapse of FTX last week, companies have begun to cut their ties with the now-bankrupt crypto exchange. The latest is Visa, the world’s largest payments processor.

On Sunday, Visa announced it was severing its global credit card agreements with collapsed crypto exchange FTX. In a statement, a Visa spokesperson said: “The situation with FTX is unfortunate and we are monitoring developments closely.”

“We have terminated our global agreements with FTX and their U.S. debit card program is being wound down by their issuer,” the spokesperson added.

In October, Visa partnered with FTX to offer account-linked Visa debit cards in 40 countries with a focus on Latin America, Asia, and Europe. It was one of the payment giant’s latest forays into the crypto space. FTX was one of the more than 70 crypto partnerships that Visa had at the time.

“Even though values have come down there’s still steady interest in crypto,” Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu said back in October. “We don’t have a position as a company on what the value of cryptocurrency should be, or whether it’s a good thing in the long run — as long as people have things they want to buy, we want to facilitate it.”

Late last year, Visa become the first major payments network to settle a transaction in USD Coin, a stable cryptocurrency over Ethereum. The launch is part of a pilot program with the payment and crypto platform Crypto.com.

FTX filed for bankruptcy last week and the crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried (known as SBF) resigned as the CEO of the crypto exchange FTX Group. John J. Ray III was appointed the new CEO effective immediately. The sudden announcement comes just a day after SBF warned FTX investors of bankruptcy without more capital.