SINGAPORE, AUGUST 8, 2021 — Zipmex, Southeast Asia’s leading digital asset platform announced a major strategic partnership to take advantage of the combined strength of Zipmex and Visa’s global payments platform and network. This will allow the company to revolutionise how people spend their digital assets across its markets. Already a regional leader in digital asset payments, Zipmex plans to launch an innovative new payment product later this year.
Extending the flexibility and convenience of Zipmex’s payment program, ZipSpend, customers will soon have the option to get access to the 70 million merchants in Visa’s global network as it seeks to bridge digital assets with traditional payment infrastructure. Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments recently announced that US$1 billion had been spent using its crypto-supported cards in the first half of 2021.
“Visa is the perfect partner for us as we move forward with our innovative payment products,” said Zipmex CEO Marcus Lim. “Visa has proven itself over the last 10 years to be at the forefront of payment innovation, a strategy which aligns very much with our own. We thank Visa for its support and look forward to a strong and lasting relationship.”
Zipmex is the only exchange that is live and operating in four jurisdictions in a legally compliant manner, and this is a path the company will continue to follow. Through its easy-to-use mobile apps and websites, users get access to a variety of financial services, including digital payments, an exchange, and interest-bearing accounts. To date, the platform has transacted over US$1 billion in gross transaction volume since its launch in late 2019. In January this year, the company secured $6 million in a funding round led by Jump Capital.
“The partnership between Zipmex and Visa represents a ground-breaking development for Southeast Asia which is backed by the integration of digital assets and blockchain infrastructure and the mainstream payment platform which will offer compelling opportunities to expand their use in payments and fintech applications,” added Mr. Lim. “We are glad to be the market-entry partner for Visa into markets like Thailand. Any payment product we release will have been approved by the respective regulatory bodies first. As we are in the unique position of launching the first product of this kind, we have been able to provide support and guidance to help regulators pass effective digital asset legislation. This has been one of the more fulfilling aspects of this project.”
Zipmex and Visa will work together to educate and enable Visa’s global network of global fintech partners and marketplace partners looking to benefit from the power of digital assets for worldwide payments. The innovative new payment product, a Visa-branded payment card, will give cardholders the freedom to convert their digital assets to fiat currency to spend anywhere Visa is accepted, backed by the reliability, speed, and security of the Visa network. The new payment card will be available to anyone who has passed its KYC process, subject to local compliance and regulation. Further details will be announced later this year.