Visa has announced the expansion of its stablecoin settlement initiative, incorporating five new blockchain networks into its pilot program. This development brings the total number of supported networks to nine and marks a significant milestone, with the program achieving a $7 billion annualized run rate, representing a 50% increase from the previous quarter. The stablecoin settlement pilot enables issuers and acquirers to utilize stablecoins for transaction settlement, bypassing traditional banking channels.
The newly integrated blockchains, which include Coinbase's Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Circle's Arc, and Stripe-backed Tempo, join the existing roster of supported networks, comprising Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Stellar. This strategic move by Visa reflects the growing adoption of stablecoins as a means of facilitating cross-border payments.
By embracing a multichain approach, Visa aims to provide its partners with access to diverse liquidity pools without added complexity, thereby streamlining global payment processes. 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 align with this reality. By expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot to include more blockchains, we empower our partners to select the networks that best suit their needs, while Visa provides a unified settlement layer across all of them.'