Visa is expanding its settlement network to cover more stablecoins and networks, though usage by merchants still appears to be limited.
Payments giant Visa is expanding its settlement platform to support additional stablecoins, blockchains and use cases, broadening its role in Web3 payments.
In a July 31 press release, the company said it will add two new U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins — Global Dollar (USDG) and PayPal USD (PYUSD) — through a partnership with Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure provider.
Visa is also integrating Circle’s euro-pegged EURC stablecoin and extending blockchain support to Stellar and Avalanche, alongside Ethereum and Solana, according to the release.
Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth products and strategic partnerships at Visa, said the company is building a “multi-coin and multi-chain foundation to help meet the needs of our partners worldwide,” adding that stablecoins can “fundamentally transform how money moves around the world.”
With the expansion, Visa’s network now supports four stablecoins and four blockchains for settlement. The company said select pilot partners will be able to settle transactions in both USD- and EUR-backed stablecoins, in addition to more than 25 fiat currencies already supported, though it didn’t specify when the rollout will begin.
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, wrote in an X post that with the latest additions, the company wants “to be able to bridge any stablecoin, representing any currency, from any blockchain, with existing fiat currencies meeting our clients where they are.”
Still Early
Despite the expansion, it remains unclear whether stablecoins will revolutionize payments anytime soon.
Sheffield noted in a July 21 X thread that total stablecoin transaction volume reached $48.5 billion over the past 12 months, but actual payments using stablecoins represent only a small fraction of that, making up less than 1% of overall stablecoin activity
He explained that this figure largely reflects retail-sized transactions, including deposits or withdrawals into exchanges for crypto trading or peer-to-peer transfers, meaning only a small portion likely represents spending at merchants.
“The reality is that today, stablecoins are being used for high-value transfers, business to business [B2B] and cross-border payments. Retail transactions at merchants? Still a small part of this,” he wrote in the X post.
As of press time, the stablecoin market has grown to a total market capitalization of over $273 billion, up from under $10 billion in 2020.
The Defiant reported earlier this week that financial giant BlackRock recently named stablecoins as one of five “mega forces” driving investment returns, saying stablecoins act like digital cash that can speed up and cut costs for payments, help power decentralized finance, and could strengthen the U.S. dollar’s global role.
