Tangem partners with Visa to pay in crypto in the physical world

Cryptoasset company Tangem has taken advantage of the end of the first half of the year to make a number of announcements and unveil the forthcoming launch of a payment solution. For this, the Swiss fintech has teamed up with Visa, with the aim of offering a solution adapted to Tangem's wallet, while guaranteeing the highest level of security. Currently in the testing phase, the solution should be integrated directly into Tangem's physical wallet.

FACTS

• Tangem announces the launch of the test and production phases for a new payment solution: Tangem Pay.
• The fintech has teamed up with Visa to produce a solution integrated with its hardware wallet, so that owners can spend their cryptos more easily.
• Indeed, Tangem markets cold-storage wallets on smart cards whose shape is similar to a bank card.
• In practical terms, a Visa payment card will now be combined with these physical wallets, enabling their users to make payments directly via the balance of crypto-assets or stablecoins, at all Visa-accepting professionals.
• Unlike conventional cards, however, Tangem's card incorporates a private key directly into its chip, and will therefore require physical use for each payment.
• According to the fintech, Tangem Pay should be available in Europe and the UK, but its release date has not yet been announced.

CHALLENGES

• First self-managed payment solution: If Tangem succeeds in bringing its all-in-one wallet to market, it will be one of the first self-custodial payment solutions. This means that, unlike a traditional bank account where funds are held by a third party, the user holds and manages the entire account on an ongoing basis. The wallet's design is therefore the key to its security.
• A highly secure solution: This partnership will enable Tangem to benefit from the expertise of a payment giant, precisely to maintain the level of security implemented in the initial wallet. Tangem's wallet uses biometrics and a password via a mobile application. The wallet is the only place where private keys (proof of ownership of a cryptoasset) are kept, so the fintech offers up to three cards for a single wallet. The cards are connected in a secure and closed manner, enabling them to transfer private keys to each other, so that each card owns all the wallet's assets. Of the million cards produced by Tangem, not a single one has been hacked. Visa has therefore promised to contribute its know-how to offer a flawless security solution, in the spirit of what Tangem is currently offering.
• Reconciling banking services and digital assets: Both parties believe that the release of their solution will bring two hitherto distant fields even closer together. Despite investors' attraction to cryptoassets, their day-to-day use is still complicated, and solutions enabling traditional payment with cryptoassets are few and far between. The release of Tangem Pay could therefore meet this need, while retaining an end-to-end self-guarding solution.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The Swiss fintech is not the first to offer a payment card linked to cryptoactives. Ledger, the well-known French crypto wallet fintech, launched a payment card in partnership with Baanx two years ago. At the same time, Revolut unveiled a similar feature enabling a conventional payment card to be used to spend cryptocurrencies.
• Enabling solutions to issues such as currency exchange and conversions, cryptoassets quickly attracted the interest of players such as insurance companies, for example. Since 2022, insurers such as Insured Nomads have been accepting payments in cryptocurrencies for nomads, simplifying the management of exchanges between currencies.