Modern enterprises have different requirements than the existing international payments infrastructure. Businesses around the globe are often restricted by outdated and complex payment systems that limit their growth potential.

Many traditional businesses are now turning to cryptocurrency payments to find an alternative. The popularity of using crypto to pay for payments is growing. We spoke with Mercuryo COO Greg Waisman, Co-Founder of Mercuryo about changes occurring in the payment industry today and where cryptocurrencies stand in that process.

Mercuryo, a global payments network, provides companies, including crypto businesses and mainstream banks with a cryptocurrency-powered set of payment options through one integration. As a way to enable cross-border transaction at a low price and ease, it uses cryptocurrencies.

Q: What inspired Mercuryo’s Co-Founder/COO?

The crypto boom coincided with our entry into online payment. We discovered there were no reliable crypto/fiat payment gateways available at that point. Telegram chats was used to purchase digital assets quickly. Many business partners were keen to learn how their customers could buy crypto.

Therefore, we took the chance to create a solution to allow businesses and customers to have easy access to cryptocurrency. Mercuryo is now known as the Strategy to Transform Itself. We saw it as the opportunity to connect crypto and fiat, and to unite them.

We were able to quickly create a cryptocurrency product thanks to our previous payments experience. The wallet was our first product, but we soon realized that the market for cryptocurrencies in B2B could be vast. Soon after, our main business was centered on crypto-powered B2B services. Industry players quickly noticed us and the largest exchanges began to contact us to integrate their solutions.

Q: Which crypto payment methods does your company employ to give enterprises a competitive advantage?

Mercuryo has an overview of the market to offer personalised solutions according to the client’s needs. We developed cryptocurrencies to facilitate cross-border payments. To overcome limitations such as slow transaction speeds and high fees, we built a blockchain-powered payment infrastructure.

At Mercuryo, we started to develop solutions where crypto and fiat both work together: fiat on-ramps (buy crypto with bank cards), fiat off-ramps (sell crypto and get paid with any cards), fiat in-and-out products to enable traditional payments for crypto companies, embedded solutions for crypto-related services for traditional fiat companies, support for fintech to provide a wide range of crypto/fiat services within the framework of a company’s interface, and more. As a plug-and-play service for users looking to receive cryptocurrency services, we created a fully white-labeled Crypto as a Service. Mercuryo will continue to add new services such as IBANs or bank cards.

Q: Can you give us some examples of businesses that have benefited from using Mercuryo’s services?

The use of crypto assets allows for global money transfers and mass payouts. It also makes it easier to obtain services. Mercuryo already has partnered up with banks to offer crypto-related services for customers.

Trezor Binance Trust Wallet and Trezor are just a few of the clients we work with. We help them to identify their problems and find solutions. For example, thanks to Mercuryo, 1inch – the biggest DEX aggregator – became the first-ever DeFi project to offer an easy fiat gateway to their end users.

Q: Which crypto payment method is better than traditional credit card or PayPal payments?

Digital payments require fast and efficient transactions. The current status of international business payments is undoubtedly being challenged by cryptocurrencies. It takes just minutes for a cross-border crypto payment to clear. This is in contrast to traditional payments that can take many days and incur high fees. Crypto assets could be used to facilitate international and local payments, and also make them safer.

You could also use smart contracts to add functionality to crypto transactions. One example is that some businesses are looking at cryptocurrency to pay employees their wages. You can create smart contracts to send your employees wages at set times of the month. Or, for task-based payments, after completing a certain number of tasks.

Mercuryo is a firm believer that cryptocurrency has the real purpose to revolutionize financial and payment systems. We are working toward that future.

Q: What makes Mercuryo different from other cryptocurrency payment processors?

Our long experience in payment has given us the skills to develop a Mercuryo-exclusive service. The world has fewer than 10 companies that offer solutions like ours. It’s not easy. [crypto-based payment]It is an area that needs a good payment history, legal bindings and a vast partnership network. This has been our experience over the past fifteen years. Achieving decent global conversion is hard and time-consuming work, and we’ve been doing it for quite some time now.

We also realized the potential fraud risk associated with crypto-acquisitions with bank cards, and we have created our own antifraud system. Today, it is a state-of-the-art security system and the foundation upon which we’re building other services. It analyses more than 200 parameters online. This includes the blockchain data associated with every transaction.

Q: How easy is it for businesses to start using Mercuryo’s services?

Our platform makes it easier for traditional business to get into crypto. Mercuryo provides many conveniences in blockchain and crypto, including online platforms, streaming, banking, and neobanks.

Mercuryo is a problem solver for clients and supports them in all aspects such as obtaining licences, onboarding clients, conducting KYC processes, transactions’ monitoring, crypto custody, and so on. We’re working on a modular solution for fiat and crypto businesses alike, where it is possible to integrate only the products and services required via API.

Q: Your thoughts about the future for crypto-payments?

Some countries will soon be issuing their own CDBCs in the coming years. A single app that can access CBDCs, fiat and crypto will allow digital currencies to reach certain levels of acceptance. This is when the crypto revolution will peak.

Stablecoin adoption by major companies will take place in 2022. Visa (NYSE 🙂 announced support for USDC transactions on its payment network, and will soon expand operations.

We expect the debut of embedded crypto solutions for fiat businesses. Digital currencies will be here for the long-term. Although there have been a handful of projects connecting crypto and fiat, key innovations that are crypto-centric are beginning to emerge.

Q: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced with Mercuryo?

Mercuryo was much more controversial in its early days than it is now. There is one episode when we presented the company’s solutions for crypto payments to a card acquiring company. The solution was only accepted by them if it would have a 4% percentage. When we found out that 2.5% was the average project cost, the group defended the solution citing the crypto-risks.

It is still difficult to find partnerships for crypto projects. Even the banks that are interested in the idea don’t know yet how to integrate crypto into their strategies.

It is crucial to adhere to the regulations to allow crypto to grow in popularity. For us, it’s good news, since we were always focused on compliance. We take great care to obtain the necessary licenses in our localities, run KYC for any transactions made through our platforms and monitor legal agenda every day.

Do you think expanding to Latin America and Europe is possible, given your existing operations in Brazil?

Our presence in America has been established for two years. We plan on expanding that. Europe was our initial operational area. Last year we opened offices in London as well Riga. As a way to grow further in Latin America, we also entered Brazil. Latam’s largest country is leading fintech usage, with 380 million expected to use it by 2025.

The goal is to open at least ten additional regional offices by the end of this year. These could include Africa, South America, or Asia. This is our goal to link these areas in order to establish a single global payment system.

Q: How do you see Mercuryo’s future and the services it offers? Also, how will your company handle any challenges that could come up?

Following our strategies, we expect to grow Mercuryo’s team to over 300 people and to reach a valuation of more than $1 billion. Our everlasting focus is to upgrade existing solutions, add more local payment methods, and launch new products – IBAN, bank cards, crypto SAAS for banks – according to the market’s needs.

Crypto products have huge growth potential. A survey of nearly a thousand senior UK financial decision makers was conducted in 2021. 68% admitted that there is a need to improve payment innovation. More than half the respondents believe that crypto can give them an advantage, particularly as regulations get clearer. We’ve got no doubts Mercuryo is moving in the right direction.

Bottom line

The current worldwide payments system does not satisfy the demands of today’s businesses. Mercuryo saw an opportunity to develop a system that could allow both consumers and businesses to access cryptocurrency. Mercuryo has partnered with banks to deliver crypto-related services worldwide.

The goal of the Mercuryo initiative, according to its website, is to “revolutionize finance and payments.” With crypto use on the rise and CBDCs becoming more prevalent, Greg Waisman has indicated that the company aims to develop further, opening ten new regional offices this year, including Africa, South America, and Asia. These key areas will be linked to create a global system of payments.

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