Visa, Ripple, KuCoin, Nium, Hyundai Card, Crypto.com, Elliptic, Prospect Markets, and UN Blockchain Week announced partnerships during the second week of July. The deals integrate crypto into travel, sports, cross-border payments, and compliance infrastructure, prioritizing legitimacy and operational integration over speculative positioning. Each partnership reflects crypto's quiet movement into established industries, from Tour de France sponsorships to intercompany wire transfers.
Visa Launches Visa Destinations Travel Platform in Ten Cities
Visa launched Visa Destinations, a mobile-first travel platform rolling out in ten cities: Paris, London, Dubai, Milan, Rome, Mexico City, New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Thailand. Cardholders receive curated perks including Michelin-level tasting menus in Paris, discounted West End tickets in London, shopping deals in Dubai and Thailand, spa access in Mexico City, and other location-specific offers. Additional markets are planned.
Katya Petelina, who leads global cross-border and commercial sales at Visa, said the platform accompanies travelers throughout their journey while giving issuers and merchants a stake in travel-generated revenue. Santander, Global Blue, Star Alliance, and Trip.com Group back the offers. Matías Sánchez of Santander said the tie-up gives customers in ten markets access to extraordinary experiences spanning music, sport, fashion, and food.
UN Blockchain Week Partners With crypto.news Ahead of UNGA 81
UN Blockchain Week signed crypto.news as its official media partner ahead of the UN General Assembly's 81st session. The event runs September 10–19 in Times Square, New York, coinciding with both UNGA and New York Fashion Week. Now in its fourth year, UN Blockchain Week positions itself as a venue for blockchain, AI, energy, and policy discussions.
A spokesperson for the event said they were thrilled to partner with crypto.news, pointing to the outlet's standing in the crypto press. The partnership includes a 10% ticket discount through the partner page. Early Bird 2 pricing holds until July 15 at midnight EST, after which prices increase.
KuCoin Becomes UAE Team Emirates' Exclusive Crypto Exchange Partner
KuCoin signed on as the exclusive crypto exchange partner for UAE Team Emirates – XRG, home to Tadej Pogačar. The branding debuts at the 2026 Tour de France, appearing on team buses, support vehicles, and fleet cars for the full three-week race. The deal gives KuCoin exclusive rights in the blockchain-trading and crypto-wallet categories within the team's ecosystem.
BC Wong, KuCoin's CEO, said the company was proud to launch the partnership on cycling's grandest stage, adding that the discipline and coordination required to win a Grand Tour mirrors the team-moving-in-unison ethos he wants associated with KuCoin's growth. Entering the UCI WorldTour circuit gives KuCoin a foothold in European and Middle Eastern markets, where cycling carries cultural weight.
Nium Acquires Cypher to Integrate Fiat and Crypto Infrastructure
Nium acquired Cypher, a non-custodial wallet and card-issuing startup, bringing Cypher's entire engineering team into the fold. Founder Kuberan Marimuthu now steers Nium's digital asset strategy. The acquisition enables Nium to offer stablecoin settlement, card issuing, and non-custodial wallet integration to Web3 companies and fintechs.
Prajit Nanu, Nium's CEO, said payouts routinely get stuck in correspondent banking flows while trillions sit idle in nostro accounts for days. He argued that agentic payments need trust and settlement layers that do not exist yet at scale, and that the Cypher deal gives Nium the muscle to build them. Cypher's team has roots at Coinbase and Amazon and spent four years building at the banking-crypto intersection.
Prospect Markets Partners With OG Broker for US Prediction Markets
Prospect Markets signed a letter of intent with Foris DAX FCM LLC, operating as OG Broker and backed by Crypto.com, to bring sports-focused prediction markets to the US. The arrangement runs through the North American Derivatives Exchange (Nadex), which operates the OG Prediction Markets and Crypto.com Derivatives North America brands, with OG Broker handling clearing.
Prospect will offer US participants event contracts regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Johnny Chen, Prospect's founder and CEO, called this the moment his company moves from vision to reality in the US, saying the goal has always been to make every sports moment tradable. Steve Humenik, OG's chief legal officer and a senior legal exec at Crypto.com, framed the deal as part of a broader push toward a compliant digital asset and derivatives ecosystem.
Ripple Signs Five-Year Sponsorship With University of Kansas
Ripple locked in a five-year sponsorship with the University of Kansas that puts the XRP logo on Jayhawks uniforms, the first time a cryptocurrency brand has appeared on a jersey in major NCAA Division I sports. Arranged through Learfield's local unit, Jayhawk Sports Properties, the deal extends to venue branding, digital signage, and financial and technology education programs for KU's student-athletes.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse studied at Kansas as an undergraduate and served as student body president there. Athletic director Travis Goff said the university wanted something that would transcend just a jersey patch. Learfield's CEO, Cole Gahagan, credited Goff's leadership for reshaping what's possible in college athletics. Ripple is also committing to internships and job placement for Kansas graduates across the tech industry.
Hyundai Card Tests Cross-Border Stablecoin Payments on Avalanche
Hyundai Card ran its first real-world stablecoin remittance, moving $20,000 between Hyundai Motor's US and Mexican units in roughly seven minutes. Hyundai Motor America converted the funds into Tether's USDT, sent them across the Avalanche network, and Hyundai's Mexico unit converted them back into dollars on arrival. A Hyundai Card spokesperson noted the test was tied to actual intercompany settlement needs between overseas units.
Hyundai Card plans a second trial later this month involving European entities, this time bringing in Visa and USDC issuer Circle, and testing settlement across multiple local currencies rather than dollars alone. The test lands amid a broader pattern: SBI Remit teamed up with Fasset last month on remittance infrastructure, and MassPay folded Coinbase's USDC rails into a payout network spanning 180 countries.
Crypto.com Extends Formula 1 Partnership Through 2030
Crypto.com and Formula 1 extended their partnership through 2030, building on a relationship that has run since 2021 and made Crypto.com the sport's exclusive crypto sponsor. The company has held title sponsorship of the Miami Grand Prix since that race's debut in 2022.
Formula 1 pulls in a global audience north of 1.5 billion and roughly 750 million fans worldwide, plus a 96 million social followers reach. Crypto.com is counting on this to push its own user base past 100 million. The partnership includes digital collectibles, interactive brand displays, and immersive zones at races like Miami where fans can watch live crypto transaction demos or sit through blockchain security sessions. Crypto.com says it is working directly with F1's commercial leadership to build a product roadmap that stays ahead of regulatory requirements.
Elliptic Partners With CoinGecko for Crypto Pricing Data
Elliptic partnered with CoinGecko to close gaps in crypto pricing data. Blockchains show every detail of a transfer but say nothing about what any of it was worth in dollars. For anyone doing compliance work, that blank spot is a problem. CoinGecko's API brings Elliptic real-time pricing across millions of tokens, letting valuations track the market as it moves.
Soon Aik Chiew, a product manager at CoinGecko API, said the goal is making on-chain market data accessible to the teams building, monitoring, and securing the shift toward tokenized real-world markets. Coverage now thins out fastest where it is needed most: newer, fast-growing assets, and especially tokenized real-world assets, as equities and funds increasingly move on-chain.
FAQ
What did Visa launch during the second week of July?
Visa launched Visa Destinations, a mobile-first travel platform rolling out in ten cities: Paris, London, Dubai, Milan, Rome, Mexico City, New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Thailand. Cardholders receive curated perks including Michelin-level tasting menus, discounted West End tickets, shopping deals, and spa access.
Why did Ripple sponsor the University of Kansas?
Ripple signed a five-year sponsorship with the University of Kansas that puts the XRP logo on Jayhawks uniforms, the first time a cryptocurrency brand has appeared on a jersey in major NCAA Division I sports. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse studied at Kansas as an undergraduate and served as student body president there. The deal extends to venue branding, digital signage, and financial and technology education programs for KU's student-athletes.
How does the Elliptic and CoinGecko partnership improve compliance?
Elliptic partnered with CoinGecko to close gaps in crypto pricing data. CoinGecko's API brings Elliptic real-time pricing across millions of tokens, letting valuations track the market as it moves. Once a token has a reliable price attached, every transfer of it becomes something a compliance team can screen for financial-crime exposure.
