Visa is bolstering its commitment to stablecoins by integrating five new blockchains into its settlement pilot, adopting a multichain strategy for global transactions. The company announced on Wednesday that its stablecoin settlement program now encompasses nine networks, achieving an annualized transaction volume of $7 billion, representing a 50% increase from the previous quarter. This initiative enables issuers and acquirers to utilize stablecoins for transaction settlements, bypassing traditional banking channels. The newly integrated blockchains include Coinbase's Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Circle's Arc, and Stripe-backed Tempo, supplementing existing integrations with Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Stellar.
As stablecoins gain traction as a means of cross-border money transfer, Visa's expansion is designed to capitalize on this trend. The company has been exploring this model through pilots and regional deployments, including USDC settlement linked to card programs in over 50 countries. By facilitating near real-time transaction settlements using blockchain-based currencies, partners can circumvent the delays associated with traditional banking systems. Visa's support for multiple networks aims to provide 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 operate in a multichain environment and expect their options to reflect this reality. By expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot to additional blockchains, our partners can select the networks that best suit their requirements while relying on Visa to provide a unified settlement layer across all of them.'