Visa is bolstering its commitment to stablecoins by expanding its settlement pilot to include five more blockchain networks, adopting a multichain strategy for global payment processing. The company announced on Wednesday that its stablecoin settlement pilot now covers nine networks, achieving a $7 billion annual run rate, representing a 50% increase from the previous quarter.
This program enables issuers and acquirers to settle transactions using stablecoins instead of traditional banking systems. The newly added blockchains - Coinbase's Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Circle's Arc, and Stripe-backed Tempo - join the existing integrations with Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Stellar. As stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of fiat currencies, continue to gain traction as a means of cross-border money transfer, Visa's move is part of its broader strategy to test and implement this model through various pilots and regional launches, including the use of USDC for settlement in card programs across over 50 countries. By leveraging blockchain-based dollars, partners can settle transactions in near real-time, bypassing the traditional days-long wait for funds to move through banking channels.
By supporting multiple networks, Visa aims to provide its partners with access to diverse liquidity pools without added complexity. According to Rubail Birwadker, Visa's global head of growth products and strategic partnerships, 'Our partners are developing solutions in a multi-chain ecosystem, and they expect their options to reflect this reality. By expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot to more blockchains, our partners can select the networks that best suit their needs while relying on Visa to provide a unified settlement layer across all of them.'