Cuy Sheffield received a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Pomona College and worked a few jobs via this degree before settling in at the business development section of TrialPay in 2014, which was acquired by Visa in April 2015, transitioning Sheffield into a merchant partnerships role.
Sheffield worked in partnerships until June 2019, when it was revealed he would help lead Visa into the world of cryptocurrencies as the group’s new head of crypto. Sheffield is also co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council of cryptocurrencies and helps advise at the Digital Dollar Project.
In August, Visa jumped in on the CryptoPunk craze, investing in one of the NFTs for almost $150,000 Ether. At the time, Sheffield claimed CryptoPunks was a “cultural icon for the crypto community” and that Visa’s investment represented them “jumping in feet first.”
July saw Visa’s chief financial officer, Vasant Prabhu, revealing that citizens had spent over $1 billion worth of crypto via Visa’s crypto-linked cards in the first half of 2021 alone. Due to this success, Visa revealed it would partner up with dozens of crypto platforms, including Coinbase and Binance, on card-related initiatives to make it even easier for its users to adopt and spend digital assets.
In September, Visa announced an ambitious layer-2 network for stablecoins, aiming to act as a sort of central hub facilitating the exchange of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies. The solution is meant to be Ethereum-powered, though Visa is open to building a layer-2 project on other networks if it deems necessary.
In December, Visa revealed the launch of the crypto arm of its Visa Consulting and Analytics firm. This expansion was due in part to Visa’s finding that 94% of “financial decision-makers” around the world were considering getting involved with cryptocurrencies. The enterprise is also hoping to compete with Mastercard, which has also been delving deep into digital assets.
The company also noted that from Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021, Visa processed $3.5 billion in digital currency transactions. Simplex, a financial institution and subsidiary of Nuvei, launched a Visa-branded crypto debit card in December as well. Considering Visa crypto cards can be spent at over 80 million merchants worldwide, it’s safe to assume these numbers will rise over the next year.
In January, Visa published a study regarding digital payments and small businesses called “Visa Global Back to Business Study — 2022 SMB Outlook.” Within it, the payments firm revealed that 82% of the companies surveyed claimed they would accept some sort of digital payment option in 2022, and 24% of that group plan to accept cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Early January also saw Visa reveal more details regarding its central bank digital currency platform. The company will launch a pilot program with ConsenSys, and is doing so with confidence, considering its recent talks with more than 30 central banks regarding digital currencies. Visa will be in direct competition with Mastercard, which launched a similar initiative in September 2020.
Visa will undoubtedly continue to pursue these companies to advise and assist their movements into crypto. Based on the company’s history, Sheffield is expected to play a big part in successfully transitioning these groups.
Payments
