Visa broadens options for settling transactions using stablecoins
Visa, the global leader in digital payments, has announced an expansion of its stablecoin settlement platform, marking a significant shift in focus towards traditional banking partners. The platform now supports five stablecoins across four blockchains, including Circle's USDC, Paxos' USDG and PYUSD, Circle's EURC, and two unnamed assets.
The expansion includes the addition of two new blockchains, Stellar and Avalanche, alongside the previously supported Ethereum and Solana networks. This move reflects Visa’s strategic push to facilitate faster, lower-cost digital payments and settlements, particularly for cross-border commerce.
The integration enables users to send, receive, and convert balances of these stablecoins into traditional fiat currency across the supported blockchains. This enhancement bolsters Visa’s digital asset financial infrastructure, aiming to make stablecoin payments as seamless as traditional Visa payments.
The VTAP (Visa Tokenized Asset Platform) supports both stablecoins and tokenized deposits, indicating a broader acceptance and integration of stablecoins into traditional financial systems. The platform's mission is to build an interoperable layer for global, secure, and reliable stablecoin payments at scale.
Worldpay and Nuvei were the first to go live for stablecoin settlement on Visa’s platform. The platform now targets 15,000 banking partners through the VTAP, signifying a growing interest in stablecoins among financial institutions.
The expansion of Visa's stablecoin settlement platform follows growing institutional interest in stablecoins, propelled by the GENIUS stablecoin bill in the U.S. Major corporations and financial institutions are showing increasing interest in stablecoin technology.
Visa has also integrated these stablecoins into its Visa Direct platform and is expanding stablecoin-linked card products to capture more market share in the digital payments space.
Meanwhile, Spain's BBVA plans to launch a token this year, complementing the launch of the bank's retail crypto offering last month. The planned token launch could be a significant step in the adoption of stablecoins by traditional financial institutions, marking a growing trend of traditional banks entering the cryptocurrency space.
References:
[1] Visa Press Release: Visa Announces Expansion of Stablecoin Settlement Platform
[2] Coindesk: Visa's Stablecoin Settlement Platform Now Supports Circle's EURC
[3] Cointelegraph: Visa Adds Four New Stablecoins to Settlement Platform
[4] Finextra: Visa Integrates Stablecoins into Visa Direct Platform
[5] The Block: Visa Adds Stellar and Avalanche Support to Stablecoin Settlement Platform
- Visa's strategic push to facilitate faster, lower-cost digital payments and settlements, particularly for cross-border commerce, includes the addition of Stellar and Avalanche blockchains to its stablecoin settlement platform, aiming to make stablecoin payments as seamless as traditional Visa payments.
- The integration of stablecoins into Visa's Visa Direct platform and the expansion of stablecoin-linked card products indicative of Visa's efforts to capture more market share in the digital payments space.
- Spain's BBVA plans to launch a token this year, complementing the launch of the bank's retail crypto offering last month, which could be a significant step in the adoption of stablecoins by traditional financial institutions, marking a growing trend of traditional banks entering the cryptocurrency space.
