Visa Expands Stablecoin Power Payments

In a strategic move poised to reshape the global payments landscape, Visa has announced a significant expansion of its stablecoin capabilities. Focusing on enhancing settlement, issuance, and cross-border payment processes, the payments giant is integrating digital currencies deeper into its core infrastructure. This expansion not only solidifies Visa's belief in the potential of stablecoins but also lays the groundwork for a more efficient, faster, and accessible financial system worldwide.

Expanding Stablecoin Support: New Coins And Chains

Visa is building a robust multi-coin and multi-chain foundation, enhancing its ability to meet the evolving needs of its partners worldwide. The company has bolstered its support for new stablecoins, extending its portfolio beyond the initial USDC to several other digital assets. Specifically, Visa has now integrated:

New Stablecoins: In addition to USDC, Visa now supports Global Dollar (USDG) and PayPal USD (PYUSD) through a new partnership with Paxos, as well as Circle's euro-backed stablecoin, EURC. This brings the total number of supported stablecoins to four.

New Blockchains: Beyond Ethereum and Solana, Visa has added support for the Stellar and Avalanche blockchains. This means the Visa network now operates across four unique blockchains.

The addition of EURC is particularly noteworthy, marking the first time the Visa network is offering euro-denominated stablecoin settlement for select pilot partners. This significantly extends Visa's crypto and treasury infrastructure capabilities, which already handle settlements in more than 25 fiat currencies globally.

Key Milestones And Impressive Growth

Visa CEO Ryan McInerney shared impressive statistics during the company's fourth quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. These figures highlight the burgeoning growth in stablecoin and crypto adoption facilitated through the Visa network:

 - Since 2020, Visa has facilitated over $140 billion in crypto and stablecoin flows.

 - Visa users purchased more than $100 billion of crypto and stablecoin assets using their Visa credentials.

 - Users spent more than $35 billion in crypto and stablecoin assets using Visa credentials.

 - Stablecoin-linked Visa card spending quadrupled year-over-year in the quarter.

 - Monthly settlement volume now surpasses a $2.5 billion annualized run rate.

 - Visa operates more than 130 stablecoin-linked card issuing programs across 40+ countries.

 - Visa's stablecoin settlement platform now accepts and converts two currencies (implying USD and EUR stablecoins) to over 25 traditional fiat currencies.

These numbers unequivocally demonstrate the increasing acceptance and trust in stablecoins within the global payments ecosystem.

Strategic Partnerships And Innovative Pilots

Visa has been actively engaging in pilot programs and strategic partnerships to drive stablecoin adoption. Among these are:

 - Crypto.com Pilot (2021): Visa began testing how USDC could be used inside its treasury operations, leading to a pilot with Crypto.com. This project successfully leveraged USDC and the Ethereum blockchain to receive payments from Crypto.com for cross-border volume on their live card program in Australia. Crypto.com now uses USDC to fulfill its settlement obligations on the Visa card in Australia and intends to roll out this capability in other markets.

 - Pilots with Worldpay and Nuvei: Visa is working with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei in pilot programs to expand stablecoin settlement capabilities, utilizing USDC on Solana and Ethereum.

 - Visa Tokenized Asset Platform: Visa has begun enabling banks to mint and burn their own stablecoins through this platform.

 - Visa Direct Pre-Funding Pilot (September 2025): Visa announced a stablecoin pre-funding pilot for Visa Direct, targeting banks, remitters, and financial institutions seeking faster, more flexible liquidity management. This initiative represents Visa's push to integrate stablecoin capabilities into cross-border money movement infrastructure.

The Future Of Payments: Faster, Cheaper, Global

Visa's core objective in expanding stablecoin capabilities is to modernize cross-border money movement. By leveraging stablecoins and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, Visa is helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for its clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa's treasury.

Key benefits include:

 - Rapid Settlement: Funds can be credited within minutes, far faster than traditional cross-border remittances that typically take 1-2 days.

 - Cost-Effective: No need for high bank transaction fees.

 - Global Accessibility: Stablecoins inherently possess global accessibility.

 - On-Chain Transparency: All transactions are traceable, transparent, and tamper-proof.

Visa believes that when stablecoins are trusted, scalable, and interoperable, they can fundamentally transform how money moves around the world.

Conclusion

Visa's substantial expansion of its stablecoin capabilities marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of global finance. By integrating these digital currencies into its core operations, from settlement to issuance and cross-border payments, Visa is not only addressing current pain points of the traditional financial system but also opening new avenues for innovation. With support for more stablecoins and blockchains, coupled with strategic partnerships and pilot programs, Visa is positioning itself at the forefront of the future of payments, promising a faster, more cost-efficient, and globally accessible financial system for everyone.

The content above reflects the author's personal views only and does not represent any official stance of Cobic News. The information provided is for reference purposes only and should not be considered investment advice from Cobic News.