Visa has struck a strategic partnership with crypto payments infrastructure firm Mesh to let consumers spend digital asset balances directly at merchants that accept Visa, a network the card giant says spans more than 175 million locations across over 200 countries and territories.

The arrangement, announced Oct. 19, is built around a simple premise: the shopper never has to sell, transfer or preload funds. A Visa credential is provisioned behind the scenes, so a customer can tap a standard contactless terminal or check out online, and Mesh handles the funding and conversion on the back end. The merchant receives an ordinary Visa payment in local currency, with no new hardware and no change to the checkout workflow.

“Crypto never had a…