Visa expanded stablecoin settlement capabilities (01/2024)

Financial technology powerhouse Visa is expanding its stablecoin settlement capabilities to the Solana blockchain and is also working with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei.

We must remember that the payments giant has been working with issuers of stablecoins since 2021 and the latest move is part of Visa looking into settlement options to send funds onchain and hence speed up settlement times for their merchants.

By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, Visa helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for merchant acquirers like Worldpay and Nuvei to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury.

Using its own account with USDC outfit Circle, Visa can now manage settlement payouts in USDC to Worldpay and Nuvei who can then route these payments in USDC to their end merchants.

This development from Visa is a massive one as it has the potential to revolutionize dollar settlements between institutions by taking advantage of cryptos speed and global accessibility. It makes cross-border dollar payments faster, cheaper, and available 24/7. The funds can be sent instantly rather than having to wait days (or sometimes - even weeks). Thus, acquirers (payment processors like Worldpay or Nuvei) can receive funds instantly from Visa after a transaction, rather than waiting days. They can then instantly pay merchants, eliminating settlement risk. More importantly, it not only validates the value of stablecoins for cheaper and faster cross-border payments. Also, this unlocks huge potential across the whole payments ecosystem and can modernize the entire cross-border finance value chain. Zooming out, this means that Visa is not only quietly bringing crypto to one billion users. More importantly, it shows that stablecoins might eventually become the de facto interbank settlement solution via card networks.

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