Visa and BBVA Team Up to Bridge Traditional Finance and Crypto

Leading digital payment service provider Visa has launched a new platform to merge traditional finance and crypto.

Through a partnership with BBVA, the new platform, tagged the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP), is set to connect banks to real-world assets.The project is in its testing phase, and Visa plans to roll it out more widely by 2025.

Visa Introduces VTAP to Bridge Finance and Crypto

Visa announced its latest venture, VTAP. According to the announcement, this project bridges the gap between traditional finance and crypto.The platform allows banks to issue tokens tied to real-world assets, enabling smoother integration with the growing blockchain sector.

In the statement, Visa's head of Innovation, Vanessa Colella, said, Visa has been at the forefront of digital payments for nearly sixty years, and with the introduction of VTAP, we are once again setting the pace for the industry."

Visa partnered with Spanish bank BBVA, aiming to test VTAP before its full launch. BBVA is playing a central role in the early phases of this project.

The bank's involvement started in September with a smaller sandbox" test, where the platform was trialled on a limited scale. Visa plans to launch the platform fully after this initial test phase.

Francisco Maroto, Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets at BBVA, expressed optimism.

This partnership is a significant milestone in our exploration of the potential of blockchain technology," he said.

Visa's press release highlights VTAP's focus on connecting traditional banks to blockchain technology. However, the full impact of VTAP on regular bank operations is still developing.

Stablecoins at the Core of VTAP

The primary goal of VTAP is to connect traditional banks to crypto by enabling them to issue stablecoins. BBVA is already working on this aspect.

In an interview with Fortune, Maroto explained that BBVA's involvement centres around developing stablecoins to settle crypto transactions.

Visa sees great European potential, mainly due to the region's evolving crypto regulations. With new laws governing stablecoins, European banks like BBVA are in an ideal position to leverage VTAP's technology.

Visa has been experimenting with tokenized assets in various regions and seeks to expand this globally. This partnership could allow banks worldwide to enter the growing real-world assets (RWA) market.

Growing RWA Market and Visa's Ambitions

The RWA market is growing fast, and Visa wants to establish a foothold. According to DeFillama data, RWA TVL was around $750 million last year. But today, it's sitting at $6.325 billion, suggesting that more firms could enter the industry soon.

With this latest project, Visa aims to help banks like BBVA issue real-world asset-backed tokens. If other banks follow BBVA's lead and start using VTAP to issue stablecoins, Visa could benefit significantly.

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