Quantoz Payments B.V., the Netherlands-headquartered payments technology company, has entered into a strategic partnership with Visa to become a direct Visa principal member.
The agreement allows Quantoz to facilitate the issuance of virtual Visa debit cards and act as a BIN-sponsor for third-party fintechs and platforms. This infrastructure enables customers of these third-party platforms to spend their e-money and stablecoins wherever Visa is accepted.
Bridging digital assets and everyday spending
Through the partnership, the virtual Visa cards can be used for online shopping, in-store purchases, and via popular mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Under the hood, a customer’s account balance held with Quantoz will directly represent the spendable balance on the card. This embedded payments solution enables fintechs and platforms to extend the utility of regulated digital money into familiar, everyday payment experiences. Technical integration for the offering is currently underway.
Arnoud Star Busmann, CEO of Quantoz Payments, commented on the development: “Becoming a Visa principal member is a major milestone for Quantoz. It allows us to make regulated digital money truly usable in day-to-day payments, while removing the complexity for fintechs and platforms. By handling the regulatory, operational and technical heavy lifting, we enable our partners to launch branded card products that connect compliant digital money with one of the world’s most widely accepted payment networks.”
Jos van de Kerkhof, Visa country manager for the Netherlands, added: “Visa is focused on enabling innovation across the payments ecosystem and supporting new ways for digital value to be used within trusted payment experiences. Partnerships like this help fintechs and platforms explore how regulated digital money can integrate with established card infrastructure, while maintaining strong standards for security and compliance.”
A compliant European rollout
The partnership is strategically focused on the European market. It will allow fintech and platform partners to embed virtual Visa card issuance directly into their own products, maintaining flexibility around branding, pricing models, and card controls. As the integration progresses, Quantoz plans to collaborate closely with its partners to support new consumer and B2B payment use cases built entirely on regulated digital money.
Founded as a subsidiary of Quantoz N.V. in 2021, Quantoz Payments issues the USD-backed E-Money Token (EMT) USDQ, alongside two euro-backed EMTs, EURQ and EURD, within the European Economic Area.
The company operates under an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB). To ensure strict compliance with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR), customer funds exchanged for e-money tokens are held by Stichting Quantoz, a bankruptcy-remote entity. The circulating tokens are fully backed 1-to-1 with fiat and highly liquid financial instruments, and the company is required to hold an additional 2 per cent of reserves on its balance sheet.