A form of digital money known as Monaco gained as much as 695% on a deal with visa that never existed, Bloomberg reports.
Monaco’s issuing company tweeted on May 17 that it would offer a Visa Inc.-branded payment card. Later that month, Monaco put out a press release describing the benefits of its Visa-branded card. However, the deal with Visa never happened. Instead, Monaco is working with a Visa-licensed issuer, Wirecard AG (XETRA: WDI).
Monaco currency dropped 29% on August 31 after it announced a new mobile application along with plans to debut five different payment cards with no mention of Visa.
According to Visa spokeswoman Lea Cademenos, Monaco is being vetted through the credit-card issuer’s review process. It is unknown how Monaco’s decision to promote two nonexistent relationships with Visa would affect the review process.
Kris Marszalek, Monaco’s chief executive officer, says he and his team are focused on securing a deal with Visa. The company has received 13,000 reservations for Monaco cards, he said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Fledgling digital-money companies are clamouring for deals with Visa because it would mean their currencies would be accepted at the 44 million merchant locations in Visa’s network.