Key Takeaways:
Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run charge in April 2026, up 50% from the prior quarter. Visa now helps 9 blockchains, together with Polygon, Base, and Arc, overlaying 130-plus card packages in over 50 nations. Circle, Coinbase, and Polygon joined Visa’s expanded multi-chain settlement layer.
Visa Pushes Stablecoin Settlement to 9 Blockchains as $7B Run Fee Hits 50% Progress
The growth offers issuers and acquirers extra choices for settling VisaNet obligations immediately in stablecoins. Visa’s pilot initially launched with 4 networks: Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar. The 5 new additions convey this system’s multi-chain attain into territory that covers institutional compliance, consumer-grade throughput, and programmable settlement infrastructure.
Rubail Birwadker, World Head of Progress Merchandise and Strategic Partnerships at Visa, stated the growth displays how companions function at the moment. “Our companions are constructing in a multi-chain world, and so they anticipate their choices to mirror that actuality,” Birwadker stated. “Increasing our stablecoin settlement pilot program to extra blockchains means our companions can select the networks that greatest match their wants, whereas counting on Visa to supply a typical settlement layer throughout all of them.”
Every newly added blockchain serves a distinct phase of the fee market. Arc, constructed by Circle, targets programmable commerce and real-time settlement utilizing USDC. Base, powered by Coinbase, focuses on quick, low-cost transactions for stablecoins and onchain belongings. Canton was designed for regulated capital markets and provides configurable privateness for institutional compliance. Polygon brings high-throughput infrastructure suited to world fee quantity. Tempo goals at personal, environment friendly stablecoin liquidity motion.
Jesse Pollak, founding father of Base, known as the transfer a step towards making stablecoin funds a day by day actuality for billions of individuals. Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, stated the inclusion of Polygon alerts that stablecoins are coming into real-world funds at scale.
The pilot’s development benchmarks are concrete. In December 2025, Visa prolonged USDC settlement to U.S. establishments, at which level month-to-month quantity had already reached a $3.5 billion annualized run charge. That determine has since doubled. The $7 billion determine displays dwell quantity, not projections, and represents a 50% soar from the prior quarter.
Greater than 130 stablecoin-linked Visa card packages now function throughout greater than 50 nations. This system has run dwell pilots and regional rollouts throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Central and Jap Europe, the Center East and Africa.
Visa started testing stablecoin settlement with USDC as early as 2021, beginning with pilots on Solana. What started as experimentation has shifted to operational infrastructure that monetary establishments, fintechs, and fee suppliers are actively utilizing.
Eric Saraniecki, Head of Community Technique at Digital Asset and co-founder of the Canton Community, stated Visa’s platform lets regulated establishments discover onchain settlement with out departing from their compliance necessities.
Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product and Expertise Officer at Circle, pointed to Arc’s capability for real-time settlement and agent-driven financial exercise. Ani Narayan of Tempo stated Visa’s function as each a validator and settlement companion brings always-on, programmable funds nearer to broad use.
World stablecoin provide has grown massively, with liquidity unfold throughout a number of chains. Visa’s strategy positions the corporate as a unified settlement layer throughout that distributed ecosystem fairly than anchoring to a single community.
For issuers and acquirers, the sensible impact is quicker settlement, 24/7 availability, and extra flexibility in how they handle liquidity throughout blockchain networks. Visa stated it stays centered on matching the reliability and safety requirements of its conventional rails.
The nine-chain milestone places Visa’s stablecoin infrastructure in a distinct class than pilot packages. The quantity, the companion roster, and the institutional participation recommend this system has moved previous proof-of-concept into ongoing operational use.
